Emerald Arts High School
by Silvershadow145
Summary: "Welcome to Emerald Arts High School for the Musically Gifted and Artistically Talented. Subjects include Writing, Drama, Music/Dance, Preforming Arts, Culinary, Design, and Fashion. It's students are studious, calm, and - Hey! What the he- Slow down! Hey! give that mic back!" "No way, it's party time!" "Faker get back here!" "Sorry, Shads, gotta catch me first!" "Soooniiiic!"
1. Featherweight Freshmen

_AN: Hey guys. This is my crown jewel right now. I'm REALLY proud of how this story is turning out. I've written quite a lot of it already o get a jump start on it. When I think the story is attracting enough attention I'll post the next chapter. I promise to try and reply to reviews in a timely manner. Um…let's see other little notes…. OH RIGHT! I think it's this chapter, or next, where you will see something along the lines of 'Westopolis, Illinois'. In this story Westopolis is in place of Chicago. I will explain other cities when they come up. I REALLY hope you enjoy this one. I've put a lot of hard work and effort into it and I'm really trying to keep the characters to their personalities. Mind you, this version of Shadow is what I imagine he was before he lost Maria. Yes…sadly he will lose Maria in this story too. BUT, it's not for a LONG WHILE. So just enjoy for now. Read, Review, and please, no flames._

_DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Sonic, Tails, Manic, Sonia, Shadow, Aleena, or ANY OTHER Characters that are the rightful and copywritten property of SEGA and their Co-Producers. I also do NOT own the lyrics to I Miss You by Blink182. I would NEVER steal anything from them and their Lyric Writers. They are an excellent band. I recommend them if you've never heard of them before. I ALSO do not own the quote 'Featherweight Freshmen'. I got that from the song Four Years by Jon McLaughlin. He's excellent too._

_HOWEVER, I DO own Kyle, Shadow's Mother, Melody, Ashiri, and any other Non-SEGA owned character that might pop up in this. If a Character appears that is non-SEGA owned that I do not own either, I will put a DISCLAIMER in the Author's Note before the Chapter. Thank you for bothering to read this. I won't keep you any longer. Read, Review, and Enjoy._

_**XXXXXXX**_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter 1: Featherweight Freshmen_

"S-Sonic! Wait!" cried a young voice. The blue hedgehog currently running away from the house didn't even pause for the yellow-orange fox that had run out the door after him. The fox dropped his outstretched hand, and stopped in the driveway. It was impossible to keep up with the speedy hedgehog when he got like this. The fox knew he would back for lunch. They would talk about this then.

The fox sighed and turned back to the house. He went back to the living room, where the two teenage mobians had been talking over a bag of potato chips, before he had brought up his most recent news. The hedgehog, Sonic, was his best friend and adopted brother and hero. He looked up to the older hedgehog, but he knew he had to be himself. No one could ever be Sonic, except for Sonic himself. No one else could move that fast, act that fast, or even talk that fast.

The fox sat down on the couch and looked at the two acceptance letters on the coffee table. He picked up his own and stared at it. What was so bad at being accepted to a live-in high school? He shook his head. Confusion from Sonic was a common thing in this house. The fox's ears pricked up when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He looked up to see the pretty hedgehog that was Sonic's biological mother, and his adopted mother. He jumped up and ran over to her with the letters.

"Look, mom!" He exclaimed, holding up the letters excitedly. "Sonic and I got accepted to Emerald Arts High School for the Gifted!" The beautiful hedgehog took the letters from his hand and read them over. Then a big smile grew on her face, but it held a twinge of sadness. If anyone could read emotions, it was the fox.

"That's wonderful, Tails!" The fox's adopted mother gushed. "I'm so proud of you both! But I guess Sonic wasn't too happy to hear the news? I saw him run out just a minute ago from my room."

"Yeah... I don't know what's bugging him. I mean this school is excellent and he could train his talents a lot easier there."

"I think I know what's up." She smiled gently. "Sonic doesn't want to go because it would mean leaving his home, his brother and sister, and me behind."

"Ohh... That makes sense. Sonic has always been close with his siblings."

"You're his sibling too, Tails." She laughed. "Don't count yourself out of that one. I'll talk to him at lunch. He's bound to come back for that you know."

"Of course." Tails laughed. "Sonic has _never_ missed Chilidog Tuesday before for anything!"

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Ash! Ashiri! Oh my gosh Ashiri!" A black and purple hedge-fox burst into her brother's room and almost stabbed him in the eye throwing a letter at him. "I did it! I got in! I'm going to EHSG!"

The black and acid green hedge-fox sitting in a desk chair with a strawberry halfway into his mouth stared at her in shock for a moment. Then he opened the letter without a word, not even bothering to take the rest of the strawberry into his mouth, leaving its bottom poking out of his round mouth. He read the letter, and then jumped out of his seat, shouting through the strawberry. The once excited girl stopped, put a hand on her hip, and raised an eyebrow at her brother.

"Chew, swallow, then talk." she said slowly, as if talking to a little child. Ashiri finished his strawberry and attacked her with a sudden hug.

"I'm so proud of you..." was all he whispered into her ear. He was hugging her tightly, knowing that in a few weeks he would have to let her go. He leaned back, holding his sister at arm's length to get a good look at her grinning face. "My, beautiful, talented, shy, wonderful baby sister; look at you, you're all grown up now..."

"Ashiri, I still have a few years of growing up to do." Melody said, rolling her eyes. "And you can come visit me every weekend, except for test study weekends. You know I can't be distracted then."

"I know, I know. We've been over these rules a thousand times, Mel. This is so great! You deserve this, you really do." Ashiri gave her another quick hug.

"I have you to thank Ash. You've been by my side my whole life. And you're the one who really pushed me to apply to the high school." Melody smiled. Ashiri smiled back.

"My baby sister... so grown up already... Where did the time go?" Ashiri asked, shaking his head slowly and looking her up and down. "You're not the little baby in the brown basket with the purple blanket anymore, that's for sure. Now you're a fully-fledged teenager standing on the edge of the rest of your life."

"Let's hope that edge I'm standing on looks out over crowds of cheering fans soon. I guess the only thing left is to let them in right?" she joked. "I will get up there Ash. I will do this. I _am_ going to be a singer, and no one can stop me now."

"Oh, yes you will." Ashiri agreed. "I'm going to miss having you around though..."

"Ash, every weekend. And a phone call every night. I think you'll live. It's not like I'm dying or something. It's just Westopolis." Melody brushed a tendril of hair behind her ear.

"It's on the other side of the state, Mel." He put a hand on her shoulder, as if not wanting to let go yet.

"Yeah so? It's not the other side of the world. Not even the other side of the country. Take a train or something. I know they're all over the place now." Melody said, brushing his hand off. "And I promise to try and make new friends this time."

"Good. I want to come visit you next weekend and be introduced to some good new people. Good luck, Mel. Now come on, I'm sure lunch is getting cold."

_**XXXXXXX**_

Tails heard the door slam shut and a whiz of fast footsteps. A breeze blew past his face with a blue blur. The papers flew off the coffee table from the sudden breeze. Tails grabbed his acceptance letter. The blur snatched his and stopped in his tracks, staring at the piece of paper. His face was blank, but Tails could tell he still wasn't feeling any better after his run.

Then Sonic sniffed the air. His eyes widened, he stared right Tails, blinked, and then made a mad dash for the kitchen with only one thing on his mind now.

"Chilidogs!" He cried. Tails laughed and joined the others in the kitchen. By the time the young fox got there Sonic was wolfing down his second chilidog while Manic and Sonia, Sonic's biological siblings, were barely reaching for their firsts. Tails grabbed two of them before Sonic could eat all of them and ate them at his own, slower pace.

Sonia was a year younger than Sonic and the same age as Tails. Manic was a year younger than Sonia and Tails. Tails was going to high school a year early because he had aced this special test the students had taken at the middle school. Manic was in seventh grade this year, Sonia was in eighth and Sonic and Tails were going to be freshmen. Tails was so excited, but Sonic wasn't so happy about it. Tails wondered if Sonic had been hoping he wouldn't be accepted. Tails didn't want to go without his brother and if his hero was uncomfortable with it then he guessed he wouldn't go.

"Sonic dear, I know you're upset about school, but I think I know how to cheer you up. Come with me for a little bit." Their mother said after lunch. Sonic hesitated, but went with her anyways, snatching another chilidog on his way out of the room. Tails sat down on the couch after he finished his own chilidogs and started playing video games. Manic and Sonia went outside to go biking for a while. Sonic came and joined him a little while later with a big smile on his face.

"So, Sonic, what'd mom say?" Tails asked.

"Not much, but it helped. I'm ready for this new adventure!" Sonic declared, punching the air above his head. "Now I'm going to show you how to really beat this level!"

"Sure you are, Sonic." Tails rolled his eyes, but smiled anyways. He put his all into the level, and he beat Sonic by only three points, but he still did it. Sonic gave him a high-five and a signature smile, and they went back to playing. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing video games together, just as brothers; before they would have to be separated into dorms according to what they would choose as their main subject.

"Are you sure you can do this Sonic?" Tails asked later that night when they were snuggling down into their blankets. They shared a room, and neither brother minded at all. They hardly ever fought, and when they did, they made up very quickly. The room's decorations split it in half. Sonic's half had green walls, a blue bedspread, and dark stained wooden furniture. Tail's half was painted a light, calming ocean blue. He had a night sky patterned bedspread and the furniture was painted white. They had hard wood floors with an area rug that matched both sides of the room, surprisingly.

"I'm sure of it Tails. This is only just another adventure of ours, right? It's just another adventure, just the two of us exploring a little bit more of this world to our hearts content." Sonic sighed happily and after a while, Tails could tell he was asleep by the pattern of his breathing. Tails let himself fall asleep as well, looking forward to that day in a few weeks, where they would be boarding a train to the next adventure of their lives.

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Mom I told you, I can pack by myself." a black and red hedgehog growled lightly, waving his mother off. She backed up with a sad smile on her face and let him do it himself. He was trying to act normal, but he didn't want to leave either. He shook his head and solidified his choice once more. He finished with his suitcases and they packed them into the pick-up truck. Shadow climbed into the passenger seat and waited for his mom to grab her purse so they could go. His younger brother was chatting up a storm in the backseat but Shadow was trying to drown him out with his iPod volume on high. His mother finally came out with her purse and his brother cheered from the back seat.

Once they got moving it was easier to drown his babbly brother out. He rolled open his window and rested his arm on it. He stuck his head part-way out the window, letting the wind from the truck's movement blow through his quills forcefully. He took a deep breath, reminding himself to revel in it while he could. He would not be coming back home for quite a while. The air smelled like White Pine trees and freshly bloomed flowers. The clean scent of last night's rainstorm still clung to the air.

His mother looked at him, hanging his head out the window just to breath in the clean mountain air. She knew he would miss home a lot, but she also knew that he would adapt to living in the city. He was just the kind of kid that adapted easily to new places. Unfortunately, he wasn't that good with the people in those places. He had never been the kid who made a new friend on the very first day of school. He took his time with those things, but the outcome was spectacular. In the seven different houses they had lived in over the years, just the three of them, he had never made any friends, but he had certainly gotten close with his teachers and elders. He had made himself well known. He had a routine to his day and everybody knew him in this small town, except for the kids his own age.

His mother shook her head in wonder at this behavior. Normal kids his age would be doing anything to get out of the house and hang out with friends all the time, but he would rather spend time at home than with his peers. The teenage hedgehog laid his cheek down on his arms, which he had folded in the window. His mother glanced at the rearview mirror to see his content face. He loved living in the mountains. The town was built on the mountain, so there were a lot of hills and tilting roads, but it was a very nice town. It was small, but nice; it was comfortable.

"Shadow, can I ask you something?" His mother asked.

"Anything, mom." He answered lazily.

"Have – have I done a good job?" she asked, biting her lip. Shadow didn't know if it was the question, or the tone in which she had asked it, but it made him turn and look her in the eye.

"Good job with what?" He asked.

"Did I do a good job of – you're so introverted it makes me feel like I did something wrong in raising you." She said. Shadow sighed and gave his mother a rare smile.

"Momma's done a perfect job!" His younger brother, Kyle, shouted.

"Mom, you've done a great job. I'm introverted because that's just who I am. I think I got it from Grandpa Gerald." He said seriously. His mother laughed, which had been his goal in the first place.

"Oh gosh, maybe I _shouldn't _have let you stay with him last summer. Promise me you'll try to make friends with some of your peers?"

"Can _I _go visit Grandpa Robotnik this summer?" Kyle asked.

"No, Kyle, you're still too young, maybe in a few years." his mother answered. His brother pouted but as soon as Shadow turned the radio on, he cheered up.

"I promise, Mom. I'll try to make friends with someone."

"I swear the only people you've let yourself get close to are my Dad, your cousin Maria, your brother, and I." The mother chuckled a little.

"Yeah, but you're not even my real mother, so..." He trailed off. "Mom, have you ever thought of adopting again?"

"Yeah momma, can I get a little brother?" Kyle called.

"I don't know, boys... I don't think I could handle trying to raise another little boy." She said as they turned the corner.

"Maybe I didn't want another little brother." Shadow said. "Maybe I want a little sister."

"A sister? You want a sister." His mother asked in disbelief.

"Sure I do." Shadow shrugged. "I'd like to have another girl around the house, if only so I could have a chance to beat up the bad boyfriends she's guaranteed to have."

"Oh, Shadow... Maybe, but not for another year, alright?" his mom laughed.

"That's okay." Shadow said with a nod.

"A sister?!" Kyle asked in horror. "I don't want a sister! Girls are yucky. They think they're better than boys!"

"Well, if I adopt a baby girl and raise her with two older brothers, maybe she won't be as girly as you think? And I think she'd adore her big brothers to the ends of the earth."

"We can hope." Shadow teased.

"Girls are sissys. They never play nice and they cry too much."

"You cried nearly every day when you were a baby, Kyle." His mother contradicted. "I think you'll just have to get used to having a girl around, but Kyle it's not for another year, so don't fret yet."

"Okay, momma..." he pouted more. Then he cheered up as a familiar song started playing on the radio. It was one of Shadow's favorites. "Sing! Shadow sing! It'll make momma happy!"

"I don't know, Kyle... I haven't sung in a while, I might be rusty." Shadow protested lightly. His brother kicked the back of his seat roughly and Shadow turned to glare daggers at him. His brother only made a big, puppy dog begging face.

"Please, Shadow? You have to sing at least one more time before you go away." He begged.

"Oh, fine. I will."

"Yaaay!" His brother cheered. Shadow rolled his eyes, but waited for the next song to start. It was another one of his favorites, one he knew by heart.

_"Hello there...  
The angel of my nightmare  
The shadow in the background of the morgue  
The unsuspecting victim  
Of Darkness in the valley  
We can live like Jack and Sally if you want  
Where you can always find me  
And we'll have Halloween on Christmas  
And in the night we'll wish this never ends  
We'll wish this never ends._

_"I miss you...miss you..."_ his brother sang from the backseat. He was starting to get a hang of it now.

_"Where are you? And I'm so sorry  
I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight  
I need somebody and always  
This sick strange Darkness  
Comes creeping on so haunting every time_

_And as I stared I counted  
The webs from all the spiders  
Catching things and eating their insides  
Like indecision to call you  
And hear your voice of treason  
Will you come home and stop this pain tonight?  
Stop this pain tonight._

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the Voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..." _

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..."_

There was a break in the lyrics and Shadow found himself smiling once more, tapping his foot to the beat of the song gently.

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..."_

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..."_

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..."_

_"Don't waste your time on me  
You're already the voice inside my head!"_

_"I miss you...miss you..."_

_"I miss you...miss you..." _The boys sang together now._  
"I miss you...miss you...  
I miss you...miss you..."_ The song ended and the brothers smiled at each other. Shadow reached a fist back to his brother and Kyle bumped it with his own.

"You're getting better, little brother." Shadow said.

"So are you Shadow! When you come home for thanksgiving you'll have to show off to Maria and Grandpa and momma and me what you've learned!" his brother cheered. Kyle was only five, but he adored Shadow. It got annoying at times, but it was nice too. Shadow liked knowing that his brother looked up to him, made him want to be a better person around his brother so he'd learn right.

"I will." Shadow promised. "Mom, are Grandpa Gerald and Maria coming to see me off too?"

"They said they'd meet us at the airport, sweetie." His mother answered, not taking her eyes off the road.

"Good." Shadow said in relief. Maria was his closest friend and his cousin. He and his brother were siblings by blood, but they had been adopted by their mother to keep them together. Maria was human, so was his mom. Grandpa Gerald Robotnik was a human scientist. His mother had shoulder length, wavy black hair, but Maria had blond hair that was a tad longer. Grandpa Gerald was taking care of Maria because her parents were tight on money and she was really sick, though it didn't show. She was slowly dying, withering away like a flower that's been sitting in a vase for too long. Grandpa Robotnik was trying to find her a cure. He worked hard on it too. "I hope he can find a cure for Maria soon..."

"I hope so too, Shadow. She's a very bright young girl. It'd be a shame for her to die so young."

"She's so kind too." Shadow added. "She loves everything that lives. She told me that herself."

"It takes a very special person to say that and mean it, Shadow. I hope you're friends with that girl for a long time."

"Me too..." Shadow laid his head back on his arms out the window and let the breeze ruffle his quills and fur. He and his brother were hedgehogs. He had red streaks on his arms and legs and quills and the corners of his eyes. He also had a puff of white chest fur, but no one would see that through his shirt until it grew out a little more, if he didn't trim it down to purposely hide it.

His brother, also black, had light blue streaks in the same places, but his quills were different. Shadow had the regular set of six bunches of quills. The four on the sides curved up while the two that went down the very back of his head curved down. Kyle had the same six bunches, but all of them curved up instead of only four of them. Because of this Kyle had been nicknamed The Porcupine. His bed head certainly made him look like one when it was scared.

Half an hour later they were walking into the airport, buying Shadow's ticket, and putting his bags on the conveyer belt that would pack them onto the plane. Shadow saw Maria before his family did and smiled.

"There they are!" He pointed. He hurried over to Maria and hugged her. Maria, of course, hugged back tightly. They sat down and waited for his flight number to be called so he could board the plane.

"Shadow this is so exciting!" Maria giggled. "I can't believe you got in!"

"Yeah... I almost couldn't believe it either when I got the letter." he admitted with a sigh of wonder.

"Almost?" Kyle asked. "Ha! You looked like you were in zombie mode or something!"

"You've been playing too many video games, Porcupine." Shadow teased. He pouted for a little bit, but Maria smiled at him and he cheered up. Maria could make the toughest person on earth smile if she wanted to.

"Promise you'll write to us, Shadow?" Maria asked.

"Of course, every day." He smiled. "I'll never miss a day when I won't write to you guys. Letters, postcards, anything. I'll have it written in the sky with smoke clouds from a plane if you wanted."

Maria laughed and Shadow felt compelled to laugh too.

"Oh Shadow... you don't have to go _that_ far." Maria giggled. "Just a regular letter or postcard will do. And birthday presents of course!"

"Of course." He agreed with a smirk. Maria bumped his shoulder with hers playfully. Shadow got a mischievous grin on his face and Maria started to lean away in playful fear, knowing what it meant. Shadow started tickling her sides like they were little kids again, playing in the flower fields. Maria retaliated by trying to tickle him, but he wouldn't give in, even though they were both laughing so hard tears grew at the corners of their eyes. Eventually they stopped when they got a weird look from a security guard. But when their eyes met again they couldn't help but chuckle.

"Shadow, will we always be friends, even though you're leaving for so long?" Maria asked.

"Of course we will, Maria. No matter what happens I'll always be your friend." He nodded honestly. Maria gave a smile, but it wasn't a grin like before.

"Why are you asking that?"

"I don't know... I was kinda worried that you'd get caught up in your new school and forget about us." She said, looking down at the floor.

"Maria, every flower that I see, every breeze I hear blowing through the trees, every cloud during the day, and every star at night, and every morning bird song will remind me of home. How could I forget about it? My home will always be here, with you and Grandpa and Kyle and Mom. It wouldn't feel like home without you guys." he squeezed her hand and she smiled again, this time the grin was back.

"Thanks Shadow." She said. "I almost wish I could be going with you, but I didn't get in. I didn't even apply. I'll call you every night alright? Call me when you get there and tell me when I can so I don't call you in the middle of class or something." She giggled.

"Oh, Chaos... that'd be embarrassing." he said. Maria laughed some more.

_"Flight Forty-Three, now Boarding. Repeat, Flight Forty-three now boarding."_ called the loudspeaker. That was his cue. He stood up and everyone seemed to attack him hugs at the same time.

"Hey, hey, don't kill me before I can even step onto the plane!" Shadow protested with a laugh. They backed up and his mom wiped a tear away.

"Take care of Kyle, mom. I'll be back before you even knew I was gone." He gave her a reassuring smile and she nodded, smiling back. Grandpa Gerald gave him a proud nod and Kyle ran up and hugged his legs. Shadow ruffled his quills.

"You take good care of mom, Porcupine. Never let her cry, not a single tear, got it?"

"Okay, Shadow... Don't stop singing, okay?"

"Never." He promised. Kyle smiled and backed off. Shadow hugged Maria tightly.

"Don't forget about me either, Maria." He whispered.

"Never." She repeated his word of promise. "I'll miss you, Shadow."

"I'll miss you too, Maria. I'll call you later okay?"

"Okay."

She let him go and he ran off towards his gate, waving behind him the whole way. Shadow looked back once at the gate while the attendant scanned his ticket. He held up a hand and smiled. Everyone waved in return and he slipped past the gate, and into the tunnel that led to the plane. He sighed as he sat down in his seat and stared out the window at the airport.

His family was in there. He could go back now and not leave at all and attend normal high school with Maria. After all, he was only 14 and it felt like he was going to college four years early, but after four years of a live in high-school it _would_ be time to go to college. That's why he was going to Westopolis to attend EHS. This airplane was taking him to his dreams. Maria told him to never let them go and always work for them, so he was going. He was going because he promised her he would if he got in. Shadow would talk to her and all of them later. He looked up at the blue sky; stretching around the whole world, it would never change for him. He smiled and let the plane take him to where he knew his dreams would come true if he tried hard enough.

_**XXXXXXX**_

**(End Chapter 1: Featherweight Freshmen)**

**NA: So? Did you like it? Review if you didn't, review if you did. Please your opinions and views and disagreements are VERY welcome. I use them to make my writing better. If you find any holes, inconsistencies, or missing information please don't hesitate to tell me in a review. I will try to fix the mistake ASAP. If you're worried about Melody and Ashiri and how they play in because they're obviously in the group of main characters, then I'm going to tell you to just leave now. If you don't like Fancharacters, then why are you reading a story like this that's obviously going to have a few fancharacters? Just leave now, or change what you're looking for. Again, Thanks SO MUCH for reading. It means a lot to me that you even GAVE this fic a chance. My stories so far are NO GOOD so I hope this one turned out better. I changed my writing style a lot for this fic to work.**

_Next: Silver makes his debut, we get our first look at this famous school, accidents happen, hellos are exchanged, and a new friendship is formed. Mostly Shadow and Silver in the next Chapie._

_~Silvershadow145_


	2. Be Cool, Be Hard, Be Weird

**AN: Chapter 2 for ya here! Took me forever to get this segment separated from the rest of the story. I'm writing it as one long story first and then going through and separating it into segments for the chapters. I copy a segment, paste it into a new document, write in these Author's Notes in, and edit it a little bit and voila! New chapter! Chapter titles are going to be lyrics or phrases from songs I've listened to. This title is from the same song as the last chapter's title simply because it fit, I really couldn't find anything else that fit, and I really like the song. :D Nothing much happens in this chapter. Silver is introduced, he meets Shadow, stuff happens and then we're ready for the next chapter. I'd skip to the next one, but then you readers would have NO IDEA what was going on. XD**

**Read, Review, and Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!**

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter 2: Be Cool, Be Hard, Be Weird_

"Silver!" yelled a voice. "Hurry up or you'll be walking to school!"

"I said I was coming, Layla!" a nearly white hedgehog yelled back. He turned back to the mirror of the bathroom with a heavy sigh of frustration. He quickly finished tending to his messy quills and opened the bathroom door without even touching it. He was getting better at that; he was telekinetic. A blue aura surrounded him and he lifted off the ground a little bit, then he flew down the stairs and landed in the kitchen.

"Yeowch!" He jumped back into the hover and peered at the bottom of his foot to see a Lego sticking to it. He pulled it off with a grumpy growl and tossed it down the stairs to the playroom. He took the toast from the plate his sister had made for him and poured himself a cup of orange juice. The dishes needed to be done again. He rolled his eyes and did them quickly while he ate and put his boots on.

He heard running footsteps from behind him and jumped out of the way just in time for three little hedgehogs to come running into the kitchen from the hallway behind him.

"Tyler, Mara, Robby, don't run in the house." He scolded. "And keep your Legos downstairs I stepped on one of them this morning and it did not feel good."

The three kids nodded to him in unison and then the triplets ran off again, laughing and squealing as a game of tag started up. Silver shook his head, giving up.

"Morning Silver!" called a cheery voice from behind him. He turned to see his older sister, Micah, walking into the room. "Thanks for doing the dishes again. Honestly I don't know what we're going to do without you here."

"Suffocate from all the mess?" Silver offered. "Die from loss of happiness?"

"Oh we wouldn't be too sad to see you go."

"I wasn't talking about you being sad from me leaving, I was talking about how my jokes were going with me when I leave." he smirked. His sister punched him in the arm but nodded and laughed.

"Oh yeah, we'll definitely miss those! And you're weirdness and your telekinesis, and your patience, and all that. Face it Silv, we're going to miss all of you."

"I know you will. You're the one who needs to face it. I'll come see you guys every now and then. It's only an hour bike ride from the school to get here. I'm just glad I got accepted. It's harder when you live in the area."

"You'll be great, I just know it. They'll all adore you there Silver." She laughed. "Got any new jokes for me today?" she asked.

"A few," Silver shrugged.

"Do tell." She said, pretending to be intrigued. He raised an eyebrow and chuckled at her.

"A giraffe walks into a bar, has a few drinks and passes out on the floor. The bartender asks another man, what's that lyin' there? The man replies, that's not a Lion, it's a giraffe." Silver said, animating his face to match the character in the joke. His sister laughed at that.

"Any more?"

"Sure!" Silver grinned. "What did the worker at the rubber factory say when he lost his job?"

"I don't know, what?"

"Oh snap!" Silver exclaimed the punch line, making his sister laugh a little. "A neutron walks into a bar and asks, how much for a beer? The bartender replies, for you? No charge."

This time laughter not only came from his sister but his older brother, Dylan, his younger sister, Rachel, and his younger brother, Dustin, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Oh, go on go on, don't let me stop you, All Powerful Master of Laughter." He teased. Silver smirked and nodded.

"What do you call it when a dinosaur crashes his car?" Silver asked. "Tyrannosaurus Wrecks."

"More! More!" called the triplets. They had also joined the growing crowd of siblings in the kitchen. Silver laughed and nodded.

"What kind of music do chiropractors listen to?" Silver started another joke. "Hip-Pop!"

"Silver!" called his eldest sister while his other siblings laughed.

"Oops. Sorry guys! The show will have to continue on the phone later! I gotta go now!" He flew over their heads and out the door as the all waved goodbye. He was so glad they had relatively high ceilings. "See ya later!"

Silver got into the car with his sister and watched their town fly by his window.

"Can I hear a joke?" She asked. Silver turned to her. Layla was one of the many siblings he had. The triplets, Layla, Dylan, Micah, Rachel, and Dustin, and Silver and his mom and dad all lived in one house. Luckily, it was large enough to hold all of them. Layla, Dylan, Micah, and Silver were from his dad's previous marriage that hadn't ended very well. The triplets, Dustin, and Rachel had all been born from both parents. Silver loved his family a lot, but sometimes it just got to be a little too much for him.

"Sure." Silver answered with a shrug. "There's two fish in a tank. One turns to the other and says, you man the guns, I'll drive."

His sister laughed, but kept her eyes on the road.

"Oh you'll have no problem at all trying to be a comedian, Silv. That's for sure. You were the first one to get Dustin to laugh, you know?"

"I know. It was great to hear it." he said.

"I'll miss you a lot while you're gone."

"You could always just come visit me, you know. It's just the other side of the city."

"Yeah, but with everybody it's hard. You have a lot of siblings. Mom can't always drive and Dad's still in the hospital. Though, I promise to try."

"Speaking of that... how _is_ dad?" Silver asked with a worried expression. "I want to know how he's doing before I leave for school."

"Mom called last night. There hasn't been any sign of waking up any time soon. He's still alive, but the doctors are worried just how long his coma's going to last. It's been two years already." She explained.

"Yeah... two years since we've heard him talk, or seen his eyes, or been held in his arms..." Silver sighed, putting his chin in his hand and resting the elbow on the arm rest on the door. He stared out the window and suddenly saw the hospital going by. He straightened and practically flattened his face against the window to watch it pass as long as he could. When it was gone he kept staring at where the hospital had last been. His dad was in that hospital. His mom was probably with him. Layla, the oldest, was in charge while mom was gone all day. Mom never left his side these days and rarely ever left the hospital at night. Mom was proud that I had gotten accepted to EHS, but she hadn't come to see me off this morning.

Silver wished his mom would realize they needed her at home more than dad needed her at the hospital. Silver was leaving for nine months of school with only four breaks in which he could go home. The siblings Silver was leaving behind needed help more than ever. One of the triplets was acting weirder and weirder and Silver was beginning to wonder if the kid had mild autism. His mom was needed at home more than ever now. And as much as Silver wanted his dad safe and home too, his dad didn't have a choice to be in hospital. His mom did.

"Silver... listen... I know you're upset with mom for not spending time with us instead of Dad, but... you have to understand that she loves him."

"I do, Layla, but she's needed more at home. Dad is in a coma and it's a horrible truth yes, but we're her kids. We're half of her responsibility as a mother, maybe more."

"Silv, one day you're going to love a girl just like mom loves dad and then you'll understand." She sighed.

"Maybe I don't want to fall in love." I crossed my arms stubbornly and looked out the window, away from my sister.

"Oh you will. It's not a choice you get to make Silver. You can't choose to not Fall in love."

"What does this have to do with Mom and Dad?" Silver asked, turning back to the original topic of discussion.

"When you love someone you never want to be apart from them because they're just that important."

"So?" Silver glanced back at her.

"You want them to always be there and love you and never leave you stranded. Mom wants more than anything for Dad to see her first when he wakes up because he loves her and she loves him."

"Well then love is stupid."

"It is. It's also blind and deaf and one of the strongest forces on earth. It's deadly, but... it's also one of the most wonderful things that can happen to anyone."

"Yeah well... Fine. I give up. But I still feel like mom should be at the house more while I'm gone. They need her there. And I need to be able to talk to her as well once in a while." Silver gave in, dropping his arms to his sides. The car rolled to a stop outside the school gates. Only students and staff were allowed to go any further unless they were visiting and Layla had to get to work. "Thanks for giving me a lift, Layla. Promise you'll visit when you can?"

"Of course Silver! We all will." She kissed my forehead and for once I didn't protest her affections. Sometimes they were a rare occurrence. Layla had an attitude and a hot temper.

"Thanks sis. I'll miss you guys. It's going to be so boring around here without everyone running around and making a big ruckus and an even bigger mess."

"Maybe, but weird things happen at this school, Silver. It changes people, for the better or for the worse. It's impossible to come out exactly the same as when you went in. I know one thing that's certain, though." She giggled.

"What?" He asked, getting out of the car and poking his head back in through the window.

"That you're dorm room is going to be cleaner than soap!" She laughed. He laughed as well and pulled his head out of the car.

"I'll call you guys later okay? Don't forget to put me on speakerphone." Silver said, suddenly looking serious and anxious.

"Don't be worried Silver. This School is one of the best things that can happen for a kid like you. I won't forget a single word you've said to me today." Layla smiled.

"Thanks, Layla. I'll miss you." Silver said, taking a step away from the car.

"I'll miss you too, Silver." Layla gave him a reassuring smile, and the car drove away. Silver watched it go for as long as he could. He breathed deeply and let it out slowly. Then he turned and walked right into another person.

They were both thrown to the ground.

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Oof!" Shadow's head hit the concrete with a thunk and he winced as pain shot through it. He heard shuffling and started to sit up, rubbing his sore head where it had hit the concrete. Luckily his quills had cushioned himself enough that he wasn't too scraped up. Suddenly there was a hand in front of his face. He looked up to see a light gray hedgehog extending it towards him. The hedgehog had five bunches of quills coming out of his head like wavy grass. There were two longer, thicker bunches extending from the back of his head as well.

He was wearing a white T-shirt, a teal plaid button up shirt over it hanging open, jeans, boots, and white gloves with weird blue circles on them. Shadow blinked and took the hand. This must have been the hedgehog he had run into.

"Sorry there, wasn't looking where I was going." The gray hedgehog said, excusing himself and rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"No, it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention. My mind was drifting away from me again." Shadow said, dropping his hand back down to his side.

"Name's Silver." The gray mobian greeted, extending a hand again. Shadow took it and shook it firmly.

"Shadow." He answered. "You from around here?"

"Yeah actually, I live on the other side of the city." Silver shrugged.

"Lucky. I live on the other side of the country." Shadow sighed.

"What state?" Silver started walking towards the school gates. Shadow followed him.

"Colorado, the southern half in the mountains near the border to New Mexico." Shadow explained.

"Oh, yeah that is quite a ways away from Westopolis, Illinois." Silver said, reaching the gate's intercom first. They were probably the first students to arrive. He pressed the button.

"Students, Staff, or Visitors?" A lady's bored voice answered.

"Students." Silver said. "Silver and Shadow."

There was a moment of just static before the lady's voice came back. "Alright, I'm letting you through now. Orientation starts in a few hours, so once past the gate turn back to the slot on the other side of this column and I'll print off your schedules and dorm room tickets. Take the tickets to the main office. If you need any help there's maps stationed around the entire school on the info boards. Have a nice day at Emerald High School."

The voice clicked off and the gates screeched open. Shadow and Silver walked inside and the gates closed behind them. They got the papers from the other side of the column and turned towards the school grounds once more.

They looked back at each other and shrugged.

"Let's go find one of those maps." Shadow said. They walked a little ways in a random direction before finding a map pinned up on a cork board. They scanned it carefully, using the labels for guidance. Shadow suddenly stabbed the map with a finger. "There."

Silver looked at what his finger was on and smiled.

"You found the main offices, great! Now where are we?" Silver asked. Shadow raised an eyebrow and pointed at the large red X on the map. "Oh... right. Heheheh... I feel stupid now."

"Good, cause you are." Shadow smirked. Silver looked a little upset by the comment. This black and red hedgehog wasn't as nice as he had seemed at first. "Oh don't be like that. I hate teenage babies, always crying over every little comment. Besides, there are plenty of worse things you could be."

"Like what?" Silver asked gloomily.

"Like... mm...A cross-dresser. Those are way worse than idiots because not only are they idiots, but they're idiots who think they're the opposite gender of what they are." Shadow said, glaring at nothing. "Cross-dressers are weird; weird in a bad way because they have identity issues. You're not a cross-dresser, are you?" he looked him up and down warily.

"No! Eww! Girls can keep the skirts and dresses. They look better in them anyways." Silver said, making a face like he'd smelt something nasty. Shadow laughed.

"I agree." He chuckled. Silver grinned. Maybe the black hedgehog wasn't so bad after all. He was just a different kind of person than Silver was used to.

"So, what plans do you have for lunch?" Silver asked.

"I don't know." Shadow shrugged.

"Want to sit with me? Gosh, that sounds so middle-school-like." Silver reprimanded himself. Shadow chuckled a little more. "Hey, I know this cool little Asian restaurant nearby. We could sneak out and go there."

"Yeah, but we get free food here for Orientation Day. Let's go unpack in our dorms then we'll head for Orientation. And, sure, we can hang for lunch. Maybe we could check out this restaurant some other time?"

"Okay, sounds good." Silver nodded.

"So, what's with the circles on your gloves?" Shadow asked.

They walked to the main offices deep in conversation about Silver's telekinetic abilities. They got their dorm room keys and headed towards the dorms.

"So, you know about my telekinetic stuff. Do you have any weird powers?"

"Uhh, sort of. I'm not very good at it yet, but... I don't know if I should talk about it. It's kinda... classified to my family. My grandfather sort of... gave it to me through an experiment he was doing." Shadow said. When he saw Silver's horrified face he shook both his hands at him. "No, no, no it's not like that. He's a Doctor for Mobians for a Foster Care Agency."

"Oh... okay." He breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry I have a wild imagination so I pictured some mad scientist cutting you open."

"No, it was more of a brain scan if anything and... my brain waves reacting to the waves of Chaos Energy exposed to it. It was a weird experience but my body somehow... adapted to Chaos Energy over a few weeks of these brain wave interaction things."

"Chaos Energy as in, the Chaos Emeralds?" Silver asked, eyes wide. "They're real?!"

"Shhhh! Like I said, family secret. Yes they are real." Shadow hissed in a low tone.

"Wow... how do you know for sure?" Silver asked.

"Because, I've seen them. In fact, I'll show you one later, if you want. My grandfather gave it to me to help with the weird abilities. That's what these weird gold rings are for too." Shadow held out his wrists, where gold rings sat on the wrists of his gloves. There was a matching pair on his ankles.

"Weird... so, what exactly can you do with Chaos Energy?" Silver asked as they approached the dorm.

"I'll show you later. Let's go to your dorm first and get you unpacked, Mr. Lot's-of-questions." Shadow kept walking. Silver followed with a slightly frustrated sigh. It was going to take a while before he got used to this one.

_**XXXXXXX**_

They went to Silver's dorm first and started unpacking him. Silver decided to show off his skills a little and used his telekinesis to move stuff around and unpack and put things away. Shadow rolled his eyes at the show, but smirked. This kid was more than he looked like at first glance.

"So, seriously, what _can_ you do with Chaos Energy?"

"Manipulate it." Shadow said simply.

"In what way?"

"Well, I can use it to form attacks, if needed, or I can use it to teleport myself and or objects. I'm still not very good at yet, so don't ask me to try and teleport anything living. The last time I tried to teleport myself I accidently forgot to teleport the tip of my right ear."

Shadow looked up at the ear in mention and Silver noticed the tip was cut off like a knife through butter. He couldn't help but laugh a little. Shadow shot him a hot glare and a light, defensive growl.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just imagined the face of the poor person who found the rest of your ear." Silver said, trying to muffle his chuckles and with his hand. Shadow's glare disappeared and he let out a short laugh as well.

"Oh gosh, I hope it was a student." Shadow said.

"I hope it was some girly girl." Silver said, mimicking a silent scream. Shadow laughed a little more at his face and punched him lightly in the arm.

"You're funny Silver. I've never laughed so much in one day before in my life." Shadow smirked.

"That's almost sad, Shadow. You haven't laughed that much today and it's more than ever before? You must be a real stick-in-the-mud."

"Nah, I'm just quiet. I don't talk to a lot of people if I can't help it." He explained, waving the hedgehog off. He started unpacking Silver's suitcase, putting the clothes into one of the dressers.

"You don't have to help, Shadow." Silver protested.

"No, I don't have to help, but I want to. I'd be bored if I wasn't. There's not much to do while watching a friend unpack."

"You'd consider me a friend?" Silver asked, looking up from his suitcase.

"Sure, what else would I call you? I've shared my family's secret with you, so you have no choice but to be my friend now." Shadow shrugged, not looking up from what he was doing. Silver blinked and looked at the black hedgehog curiously. "If you tell anyone I'll have to kill you and the person or persons you told."

"Seriously?" Silver asked, wondering if he was simply messing with him. Shadow looked him dead in the eyes, his face the most serious thing Silver had seen since the doctors had told them his dad was in a coma.

"Seriously." Shadow said. Silver gulped and knew one very important thing right then and there.

This school year was going to take him on one seriously wild ride.

_**XXXXXXX**_

**AN: Ta-da! There's Silver and we see more Shadow. Next up, Shadow and Silver meet Sonic and Tails, Sonic and Shadow don' exactly hit it off like Silver and Shadow, and the two hedgehog boys have their first rivalry race! Please, PLEASE, if you are enjoying this Fanfiction so far, I would absolutely LOVE you if you told your friends about it. I need more readers and I love getting reviews. I've worked very hard on this story and it really pays off when I hear people actually enjoy it. Thanks for reading this far!**

_**~Silvershadow145**_


	3. I Just Wanna Run, Throw It Away

_AN: Okay so here's chapter three, and you guys have __Wolfy Winter And Dream__, __T-Striker__, and __PurrfectChaos1.0__ to thank for this Chapter Update. (They Reviewed! With awesome compliments that really touched me!) So thanks guys for the reviews and the fun chats we've had so far. They really helped, honestly they did. So in this Chapter we had Sonic reappearing finally with Tails. Some… uh… out the window stunts, our first rivalry race, insults, arguments, and just to be honest I have nothing against the song __Tonight, Tonight__ by Hot Chelle Rae. I actually really like that song._

_Disclaimer: I do NOT own any SEGA owned property, the music mentioned in this chapter, or anything else that doesn't belong to me that I'm forgetting to mention._

_The high school is mine. I've actually drawn a map of the school and if you guys want me to post it to dA, REVIEW! I've only got like four reviews right now and two of them are from the same person. (Thank you, __T-Striker!__) I mean seriously, the first chapter got 116 views and the 2__nd__ chapter got 51, but I've only got 4 reviews. That's just sad. Please REVIEW! I don't care if you didn't like the story, REVIEW! I don't care if you're not going to follow it, REVIEW! I don't care if you're not going to read any more of it after this point, REVIEW! I don't care if you absolutely hated the story, REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! PLEASE!_

_Read, __**REVIEW**__, and Enjoy!_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter 2: I Just Wanna Run, Throw It Away_

Silver and Shadow finished up quickly with their combined efforts and went over to Shadow's dorm. It was two floors up, on the top level. They found the door unlocked and when they went in there was music blaring from an iPod docking station/radio. Shadow growled, stalked over to the device, and tugged the iPod out, shutting off the music immediately.

"Hey!" Protested a voice from one of the bunks. "I was listening to that!"

A blue hedgehog sat cross-legged on the top bunk, glaring down at Shadow. His glare was the least frightening thing Shadow had ever seen in his life and he ignored the blue hedgehog. He looked down at the iPod and what music had been playing; '_Tonight, Tonight'_, by Hot Chelle Rae. Shadow rolled his eyes and tossed the iPod at the hedgehog. The hedgehog caught it and tucked it away into his quills.

"Not so loud next time, and get off the top bunk." He said, placing a hand on his hip.

"Make me." the blue one sassed back. Shadow raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you absolutely sure you want me to make you get off the bunk?" He asked seriously.

"Absolutely." The blue one answered, sticking his nose up into the air like he a prince. Shadow glared at him for a moment.

"Alright then. You asked for it." He said. "Chaos...control..." He muttered under his breath. He disappeared from his place on the ground. The Blue hedgehog looked around for where he had gone when he suddenly got a hard, strong shove from behind that sent him flailing off the bed. The Blue hedgehog landed on his face. A moment after wards his bedding came down on top of him. Silver was still just standing in the doorway.

"Uugh... You didn't have to push me." Sonic's groan was muffled by the blankets and the floor.

"You told me to make you. When someone says that to me I usually resort to violence." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Except for a few special cases."

"And what would those special cases be?" Sonic asked, getting up off the floor. He put his bedding on the bottom bunk.

"My cousin, my mom, and my grandfather." Shadow said simply. "And sometimes my brother, depending on what he's done and what mood I'm in."

"A brother, a mother, a cousin, and a grandfather. What, no buds?" the blue one asked, looking at Shadow like he was weird.

"Before today I didn't need any friends. I had all the company I could ever want with my cousin and my family." Shadow jumped off the top bunk and landed neatly on the floor. His shoes made a weird clank as they landed.

"Dude, what are your shoes made of? Metal?" Sonic asked, looking at the strange foot-wear.

"Metal, yes." Shadow said. "Or at least the soles are."

"Weird."

"They're rocket shoes my grandfather invented." Shadow explained.

"What are they run on? I don't see any fuel compartments. If they're hidden in the shoe then it must be a rather small compartment." Sonic said in disbelief.

"They don't run on fuel they run on the Chaos Energy that runs through me like blood or breath." Shadow explained further. He went over to Silver and pulled him inside by his shoulder. He closed the door behind him and went about unpacking. Silver was helping, but didn't use his mind tricks this time because of the blue hedgehog's presence.

"Chaos Energy?" Sonic asked. Then he burst out laughing. "Of all the people I get as a roomy I get a sci-fi geek with anger management issues!"

Shadow stood up sharply, growling.

"You better take that back." Silver warned. Sonic didn't hear him over his laughter.

"Chaos Energy! HA! HAHAHA! What a load of lies! Do you have a light saber in your suitcase too? HAHAHA!"

Shadow suddenly grabbed the hedgehog by his hood and picked him up off the floor with incredible strength. He walked the laughing hedgehog over to the window, pushed it open, and dangled him over the edge.

"Take. It. Back." He said, glaring holes into Sonic's frightened eyes as the hedgehog grasped his arm frantically, looking down at the ground four stories below them.

"Okay, okay! Don't kill me, sheesh! I was just joking around! It's perfectly fine if you're a geek." Sonic shrugged. Shadow growled and switched to dangling the hedgehog out the window by his quills instead of his hood. "Okay, owwwww! Dude let go of my quills, you're going to pull them all out and give me a bald spot for years!"

"Good. It'll look better on you." Shadow growled.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Just put me back inside!" Sonic exclaimed, holding on to Shadow's arm tightly.

"You're so clingy, freak." Shadow growled and he put him down inside the window.

"Hey! That was mean. Dangling me out the window is one thing, but calling me a freak is another. I've had that enough in my past." Sonic glared at the floor. Shadow faked a crying sound, rubbing the corners of his eyes.

"Oh no, the poor wittle blue hedgehog got bullied as a kid, it's so horrible." Shadow mocked. "Get a brain, weirdo." He growled. "No one lands on the perfect path to happiness. Don't go about complaining about how suckish your own life has been and look at someone else's for a change."

"You're the weirdo. Chaos Energy, bah!" Sonic exclaimed, pointing at him accusingly. "I think you're just faking, trying to make yourself look better than you are. Where'd you get that one, faker?!" "

"From this." Shadow raised his hand, palm up. Vines and strings of golden light curled around his fingers and formed a sharp spike of energy hovering above his palm. "And I assure you I am no faker. I think you're the faker around here, blue boy."

"No I'm not! What have I got to fake about?" Sonic asked.

"Oh don't try to feed me your lies. I can feel it on you and around you. You're charged up on the stuff like an endless battery. In fact I'd almost say you feel like a Chaos Emerald." Shadow growled.

"Chaos Emerald!? Me? What are you blabbering about now, faker?"

"I'm talking about you, hedgehog. I harnessed this energy from you. You're full of Chaos Energy. You've had a lot of run-ins with it, haven't you, faker?" Shadow asked. Sonic's eyes widened in guilt. "Yeah, I thought so."

"I've never touched a Chaos Emerald, but I've seen one, yeah. Once. It can't be from that can it?"

"No, it must be something else. Odd... it's almost like the Energy is part of you... Never mind. I have stuff to do. Leave me alone, faker." Shadow turned back to his unpacking with his gray friend.

"You're weird!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Aren't we all, faker?" Shadow asked nonchalantly.

"Alright, what's your name?" Sonic asked.

"Shadow."

"And the kid with the weird quills?" He asked, pointing at Silver.

"I'm Silver." He answered, pointing to himself. "What about you?"

"I'm Sonic the hedgehog." He grinned, pointing a thumb at his chest.

"Yes we can all see that you're a hedgehog, Faker." Shadow rolled his eyes at Sonic's cockiness. Sonic was silent for a moment.

"So what are you guys doing here so early? Orientation doesn't start for another hour." Sonic asked. Shadow smirked. Sonic was changing the subject; Shadow had won their little word battle.

"My plane landed at seven." Shadow shrugged. "I had nowhere else to go until Orientation. Thought I may as well take a taxi over here and unpack before this place gets full."

"And you, Silver?" Sonic turned to the near-white hedgehog.

"My sister dropped me off on her way to work. I live on the other side of town."

"Cool, hope you two don't mind if my bro stops in for a little bit. Told him he could hang here when he's done at his dorm." Sonic shrugged.

"Sure." Silver said.

"It's not up to you, Silver." Shadow hissed lightly. "It doesn't look like I have a choice. I guess so."

"Great!" Sonic exclaimed. There was a knock at the door and Silver stood up to get it. "That must be him!"

"Would you stop shouting?!" Shadow growled.

"Geez, Sor-ry." Sonic sassed. Silver opened the door.

"Oh, are you Sonic's roommate? He said I could come in for a while."

"No I'm not his roommate; my friend is. Come on in." Silver opened the door wider and a yellow-orange fox came in. He was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans. Shadow finished unpacking and stood up. The fox went over to him and held out a hand.

"I'm Miles Prower, but everyone just calls me Tails." He introduced himself. Shadow shook his hand, looking past his shoulder at the two tails that wavered behind the fox.

"I can see why. I'm Shadow." He met the fox's ocean blue eyes and he smiled. Shadow just nodded and let go of his hand. He climbed up onto the top bunk, dangling his feet over the edge as he started to straighten out his own bedding. Tails' eyes lit up when they focused on Shadow's metallic shoes, and the rocket boosters on the metal soles. He suddenly grabbed one. Shadow yelped in surprise as he was off-balanced and fell back on his hands on the bed.

"What are you doing with my foot?!" He exclaimed.

"These are rocket shoes! But I've never seen any so compact before. Where do you keep the fuel? What are these made of? Who made these?!" Tails exclaimed, looking the shoe over with a well-trained eye.

"Calm down, sheesh. And let go of my foot!" Shadow wrenched his foot from the fox's grasp and sat up once more.

"My grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik, made them. They don't run on fuel, they run on-"

"Chaos Energy." Sonic smirked. "He's a loony, bro, don't trust him."

"Sonic, Professor Robotnik is one of the greatest scientists in the world and he's known to have looked into the subject of Chaos Energy's existence. Maybe he actually found something. He knows more about mobians than the average mobian! And he's human."

"So, how is Shadow, a mobian, his grandson?" Sonic asked.

"I'm adopted, for your information." Shadow growled. "It's a touchy subject."

"Got it, Faker."

"Sonic, I actually believe that these could be powered by Chaos Energy, but, from what source?"

"Myself. I'm the source of the Chaos Energy. My grandfather did some tests on me with Chaos Energy and my body adapted to it. Now it gathers around me like I'm a magnet. I store some of it away in my rings, but those are mostly for keeping me from using too much Chaos Energy."

"Too much?" Tails asked.

"Yes, as I said my body has adapted to it, but in a way that if I use Energy faster than my body can recharge, it would probably kill me. My body needs the energy to run properly now." Shadow explained. "I use it to my advantage, but I can't do anything that's past what my inhibitor rings allow."

"Which would be?" Sonic asked.

"Teleporting over two miles, teleporting any object larger than a couch, using more than one Chaos Blast in three hours, there's a lot of limits, but inside the limits there's a lot more I can do. Oh and all of those limits are if I don't have an Emerald on hand. The limits loosen when I do."

"Teleporting?!" Tails exclaimed.

"Yes, Miles, Teleporting."

"It's Tails." Sonic objected. Shadow waved a hand at him.

"I can call people what I want, _faker_."

"Why do you call him that?" Tails asked.

"Because he says he doesn't believe in Chaos Energy yet it circulates his body almost in the same way it does mine. The only difference is it doesn't touch his body."

"Chaos Energy? You can see it?" Tails inquired.

"No, more like I can feel it. Like air currents, but... different. Large amounts tend feel like when you shock someone, but without the pain. Smaller amounts tend to feel like when you stand in the sunshine, to me at least."

"Could you somehow make the energy visible?" Miles asked.

"Well, how about I just show you one of the main sources of Chaos Energy? You can see its light at least." Shadow dug a hand into his quills. "None of this leaves this room, got it? Not a word of this to anyone or you'll find yourself free-falling from my window. Don't even talk about it outside of this room. Swear it on your lives."

"I swear." Tails said, readily.

"Fine, I swear it too." Sonic groaned.

"I swear too." Silver nodded.

"Good, now..." Shadow pulled something out of his quills and the only thing anyone could see through his fingers was red light.

"A light bulb?" Sonic asked.

Shadow shot him down with a glare. He hopped down off the bed with the thing tucked away in both hands and the mobians gathered around him. Even Sonic got off the bottom bunk to see it. Shadow opened his hands to reveal a red, glowing, palm sized, brilliant cut gem.

"A Chaos Emerald." Shadow said. "It's cut specifically to hold large amounts of the energy that comes from within it. In fact, I think I can make the Energy around Sonic show itself." Shadow held the gem closer to Sonic in one hand. As it got closer its light was reflected off of the strings of yellow energy, making them show like special ink under a black-light. The light spread out until Sonic was nearly completely incased in golden lines and streaks and strings of calm energy. It floated around him in swirls and spirals gently. That is, until they came to Shadow's hand. Then they grew more vibrant and alive. They moved faster and forgot their twirls and gentle movements. Now they raced around Shadow's hand, running through it, rocketing into and out of his golden ring.

"Whoa..." Sonic, Tails, and Silver breathed in unison.

"I've never seen Chaos Energy so relaxed before Sonic. It's like you drugged it or something." Shadow said.

"Well it seems to wake up when it gets near you." Sonic commented.

"Maybe's it's the difference in personalities." Tails said. "I heard somewhere that Chaos Energy is powered by our thoughts and wishes and what's in our hearts. You two think and act a lot differently. You probably have different wishes as well. And mindsets and the things you love are probably different."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it, Miles." Shadow said, halting the fox in his tracks. "We don't need a lecture on Chaos Energy; believe me I already know most of it by heart."

"Sorry." Miles said, looking bashful.

"It's okay, bud. Shadow's just a grump."

"And you're a blue idiot."

"What's wrong with being blue?"

"Everything."

"Well you look like some Emo vampire fan-girl threw up all over you!" Sonic retorted. Shadow fell deathly silent, glaring holes at the hedgehog as he smirked and crossed his arms over his chest in triumph.

"Uh-oh..." Silver said. "Sonic, I've only known him for about an hour, but my best advice right now would be to run for your life."

Sonic looked from Silver to Shadow's dangerously dark expression and his smirk fell into nervous fear. He smiled apologetically and took a step backwards towards the door. Shadow advanced a step as he stepped backwards.

"Thanks for the request to die, blue boy." Shadow hissed darkly, eye narrowing in pure hatred.

"Heh, heh... oops. See ya guys later!" He turned and bolted out the door, Shadow following behind. Tails and Silver followed with their own abilities. Tails was shocked to see the telekinesis, but Silver signaled with a finger at his lips to not say anything. They flew down the hallways after the two hedgehogs that were speeding faster than Silver had ever seen anyone run before. They eventually broke out of the dorm and sped around the school, tripping other early students, scaring the wits out of professors and teachers as they yelled insults back and forth between the two. Silver and Tails followed behind more carefully.

"How is he doing that?!" Tails exclaimed.

"Doing what?" Silver asked.

"Running that fast! I've only ever seen Sonic run that fast before!"

"Yeah, but Shadow isn't running, he's skating, like he's on rollerblades or something." Silver pointed at the black hedgehog. "That must be what the rocket shoes do."

"Yeah, but I think it also has to do with the Chaos Energy, because the rockets on his shoes run on it. And Sonic was surrounded by it, remember?" Tails said.

"Oh, right, maybe it does." Silver shrugged. "I guess we'll never know. But I do know something for sure."

"What's that?" Tails asked.

"This year will be anything but boring with these two around." Silver said, looking at Tails with a silly grin. Tails laughed and nodded.

"No, anything but boring!" He agreed.

"And what about you, you're flying with your tails like you're a helicopter! When did you learn how to do that?"

"When did you learn telekinesis?"

"I've been able to use it for as long as I can remember."

"I figured this out about three years ago." He shrugged.

"Cool. It must be useful."

"Incredibly so."

"Oh, they're slowing down!" Silver pointed at the slowing hedgehogs. They eventually collapsed on the grass of the school lawn. They were in the sports fields, huffing and puffing and panting form the effort of the run. Shadow just collapsed down on the ground, arms spread to either side, trying to catch his breath. Sonic remained standing, but was leaning on his knees. He wiped sweat from his forehead and looked up as Tails and Silver landed.

"What's wrong with Shadow?" Silver asked, pointing at the hedgehog lying in the grass.

"Ran out of Energy to run on." Shadow answered without opening moving an inch.

"How in the world can you move that fast?!" Sonic asked. Shadow just lifted up a foot.

"These help a little." He said. "Other than that it's just another one of my Chaos Abilities. It's probably the _only _one you have, blue boy."

"A Chaos Ability? Me? Nah, I've been able to do this for as long as I can remember. It's totally natural for me."

"I've only heard of a few select people born with the gift of Chaos Energy Manipulation. You could just be one more." Shadow said, finally opening his eyes and sitting up, leaning back on his hands.

"Maybe... but anyway, nice race, Shads. It's great to finally have some _real_ competition." Sonic smiled, sticking out a hand to help him up. Shadow took the hand and let Sonic up, but then punched the hedgehog so hard in the gut he was knocked off his feet. Tails caught the winded hedgehog and helped him up.

"What was that for?!" Sonic exclaimed when he got his breath back.

"You said I looked like a girl. And I am _not_ Emo." He growled dangerously, ready to throw another punch at any moment.

"Okay, I take it back. Sheesh. As long as you take back that insult about me being blue." He jabbed a finger in Shadow's direction. Shadow shrugged.

"Fine, whatever. Let's get back to the dorms. Orientation starts in about half an hour." Shadow said.

"Perfect!" Sonic shouted, dashing off at full speed once more.

"You're not going to dash off as well, are you?" Tails asked.

"No. I'm good with a walk." He said, sticking his hands in his black jacket's pockets. He was wearing an open black leather jacket with a dark red symbol on the back, and a red T-shirt with the same symbol in black on the front. The symbols were spray painted on and the job looked professional. He also wore black cargo pants and white, fingerless gloves.

"Yup, you two are like fire and water." Silver nodded. "From personality to clothing style. I wish you luck this year, Shadow. Rooming with him won't be easy."

"Shadow had better be water than." The fox gave a short laugh. "Sonic's scared to death of the stuff. Won't even take baths!"

"Then how does he maintain personal hygiene?" Shadow asked, lip curling in mild disgust.

"He takes showers." Tails shrugged. "He says there's a difference, but I think this whole fear of his physiological."

Shadow gave a short laugh and smirked, already thinking of the next threat in case the hedgehog crossed him again.

_**XXXXXXX**_

_Well there you have it! One more Chapter for the book. The Title of this Chapter came from the song __I Just Wanna Run__, by __The Downtown Fiction__. See you guys next time!_

_Up Next: More Melody, Amy Rose debuts, Melody meets Shadow and Sonic briefly, Freshmen Orientation turns out to be more of a party, and – oh boy. Do I see some spying action going on? We'll just see that when we get there I guess!_

_~Silvershadow145_


	4. Dream in Color

_AN: It's been a while since I posted Chapter 3, so I figured I'd post Chapter 4 now so my readers don't kill me. XP We meet Amy in this Chapter! I must put a warning in here, Shadow swears a couple times in this chapter or the next. The title for this Chapter comes from one of Kelly Clarkson's songs, I just can't remember which one… I'll find out and tell you in the next Chapter or something. This Chapter's Shout Outs go to __squirpsdolphin__ and __Pure Chaos Guardian__, the two who are the most recent to fav this story. Thanks for the support you two, I hope you keep reading my story. As for the rest of my readers…_

_Read, Review, Recommend and Enjoy!_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
A Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter 4: Dream in Color_

"Come on, Amy, come on!" Melody exclaimed, pulling on the hedgehog girl's hand more. "We're going to be late!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Don't pull so hard, Melody." a pink hedgehog girl rushed a response, speeding up a little to keep up with the black and purple hedge-fox. She was wearing a red tube top and light blue jeans that fit her nicely. Her short bunches of pink quills only went down to her neck. Three thick bangs sprung from her forehead and bounced as they ran.

"Amy we're almost there. Just a little more, come on!" Melody urged. Amy nodded, unable to speak through her panting. Melody was panting as well, but she was still extremely hyped up about being here and seeing the ever-so-famous Freshmen Orientation. Amy and Melody rushed through the open doors of the auditorium and slowed as they went down the aisle in between the rows of seats. They finally reached Amy's section, which was reserved for the Fashion students and Amy sat down with a huff.

"I'll meet up with you when it's over in front of the fountain in the courtyard outside. The one with the music notes on it." Amy said.

"Perfect. See you later Amy!" Melody called as she rushed down the aisle to her one reserved section. This was reserved for music and dance students. Melody sat down just as the lights were diming in the only open seat left. Next to her was a blue hedgehog with green eyes. He turned to her with an amused grin.

"That was a close one." He smiled.

"Oh I know." Melody panted, fanning her hot face. "I just barely made it in time. I'm Melody, by the way."

"Sonic."

"Shut up, Blue idiot, its starting." hissed an annoyed voice from the seat on Sonic's other side. Melody looked past the blue hedgehog to try and see who it was. She could barely make out a black hedgehog with red streaks in his quills and red eyes. He was glaring at the blue hedgehog, but when he saw Melody his glare disappeared and he nodded apologetically to her. "Sorry, miss. Sonic, shut up and pay attention."

"It's Melody." the hedge-fox whispered.

"Shadow." the black hedgehog answered. Melody smiled.

"Your name suits you." she said.

"Thanks."

Melody sat back in her seat as the opening to 'Good Time' by Owl City started and the stage was lit up with blue light. The teacher at the piano started singing. He was a tiger with a nice face and an even better smile.

"_Woke up on the right side of the bed  
What's up with this prince song inside my head?  
Hands up if your down to get down tonight  
'Cause it's always a good time."_

Another male teacher came out from behind a column. This one was a white dog with sunglasses down over his eyes.

"_Slept in all my clothes like I didn't care  
Hopped into a cab take me anywhere  
I'm in if you're down to get down tonight  
'Cause it's always a good time" _

A female rabbit was revealed at the top of a stair case by a spot light. She was black with white spots on her ears and one of her eyes.

"_Good morning and good night  
I'll wake up at twilight" _

The tiger put his microphone back to his lips and the rabbit and tiger sang together.

"_It's gonna be alright  
We don't even have to try  
It's always a good time!"_

The three teachers moved to center stage as a female blue jay flew down from the balcony the stairs led to and joined in.

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh!  
Woah, It's always a good time!  
Woah-oh-oh-oh!  
We don't even have to try  
It's always a good time!" _

The spotlight singled out the blue jay.

"_Freaked out, dropped my phone in the pool again  
Checked out of my room, hit the ATM  
Let's hang out if you're down to get down tonight  
'Cause it's always a good time."_

Another spotlight revealed the white dog.

"_Good morning and good night,"_

The rabbit was lit up.

"_I'll wake up at twilight."_

The tiger was singled out with another spot light.

"_It's gonna be alright." _

The four of them were all lit up now.

"_We don't even have to try,  
It's always a good time!"_

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh  
Woah, it's always a good time!  
Woah-oh-oh-oh  
We don't even have to try it's always a good time!_

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh  
Woah, it's always a good time!  
Woah-oh-oh-oh  
We don't even have to try it's always a good time!" _

Everyone but the dog put down their mics.

"_Doesn't matter when,  
It's always a good time then." _

The blue jay put her mic back to her mouth.

"_Doesn't matter where,  
It's always a good time there." _

The tiger joined in.

"_Doesn't matter when,  
It's always a good time then." _

They all pointed their mics towards the audience.

"It's always a good time!" The audience shouted.

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh,  
Woah, It's always a good time!  
Woah-oh-oh-oh,  
We don't even have to try,  
It's always a good time!_

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh,  
Woah, It's always a good time!  
Woah-oh-oh-oh,  
We don't even have to try,  
It's always a good time!" _

The mics were pointed back at the audience.

"_Woah-oh-oh-oh  
Woah, It's always a good time  
Woah-oh-oh-oh…" _

The music faded out and the four teachers bowed to loud cheers and applause. The curtains closed in front of the teachers as the music came to a complete end as the crowd burst in cheers and applause. The principle of the school, a human whose hair had turned gray from age, stepped out onto the stage from behind the curtains, joining in the applause.

"Well done, well done, indeed!" He exclaimed into the microphone as the crowd quieted. "A marvelous job, every year. Let's give another round to our music and dance teachers!"

The crowd erupted into more cheers and whistles and applause again.

"Try to shush me now, Shadow!" Sonic exclaimed. Melody laughed, but it was drowned in the cheers. The crowd quieted down again when the principle raised a hand.

"I am Principle Fortan." The human grinned. "You all sent in examples of your talents to me and my staff. We hand selected the ones we thought would benefit the most from this school and its teachings. You're not the best of the examples we saw. You're not the worst. You are the ones that we believe if you try your best to learn at this school, you will succeed! You are the ones we see true talent in, just ready to be given the water of life to bloom to your fullest! You are the stars of the future!"

'_Wow, that makes me feel special.' _Melody thought as more cheers erupted from the freshmen around her. The audience quieted down once more as eight teachers stepped out of the curtains and stood in a line behind the principle.

"We have eight departments for arts education. These are the guys they run them, the head-honchoes, the top dogs. Each of them is responsible for one department. They're here to introduce themselves. Please hold your applause until they are finished." The principle walked backwards a few steps until he was behind the line of people. The first on our left stepped forward. He was a blue poison dart frog with black spots and splatters.

"I am Mr. Smithers, the head of the Visual Arts department." He stepped back as the next teacher in line stepped forwards. This one was the tiger that had been playing the piano earlier.

"Mr. Trisen, head of the Music and Dance department." He stepped back as a white cat with bright blue eyes stepped forward. She was really pretty and her smile was nice, but not too big. She looked really kind.

"I am Mrs. Koroson. I am head of the Culinary Arts department." She stepped back like the other teachers before him and the next in line came forward. This one was a teal elephant.

"I'm Mr. Furtado, head of the Architecture department."

A gray mouse stepped forward next. She had large round glasses and a bag hanging from her shoulder and resting on her opposite hip. She looked shy and young.

"I-I am Ms. Molly Larson, head of the Wr-written Arts department." She stuttered. The next teacher in line relieved the poor teacher and took the mic. This one was a chinchilla, but looked a lot more daring. She had an open smile on her face and almost looked like one of the students.

"You'll have to forgive my step-sister, she's not too good with large crowds and she's new this year. She's a great teacher and deserves her position and that's what matters." She smiled at her sister and Ms. Larson smiled back without reserve. "I am Mrs. Lucy Sanderson. I am head of the Drama department."

The next one to step forward was another cat; this one was male. He was black with bright orange ears, eyes, and streaks down his limbs. He had a silly grin on his face and reflective sunglasses sitting on top of his head. His gloves were bright orange as well. He looked odd from his hair style to his shoes. But somehow it all worked. It was the strangest scene Melody had ever seen.

"Hi, I'm Mr. Koroson and yes, the beautiful Mrs. Koroson is indeed my wife." He flashed a goofy grin at the blushing white cat. "I am head of the Design Department. That includes everything from Graphic Design to Jewelry to Floral."

Melody was intrigued. He stepped back and handed the mic to the last person in line. This teacher was a black raven and looked about as young as Ms. Larson. She had deep blue eyes and pink eye shadow.

"I am Ms. Griffin. I am head of the Fashion Department."

Right from the start Melody knew she didn't like this teacher. Her clothing style made her look obviously rich and made her feel self-conscious. Her voice sounded like she was full of herself. And the way she looked at the other classes except her own, she looked disgusted almost. Melody let it drop though and the teachers disappeared behind the curtains and the principle came forward once more.

"And now we'll see seniors and juniors from last year show off their class projects. I hope you enjoy their performances!" The principle disappeared behind the curtain as well. The next two hours went by fast. For music and dancing a group of students came out and put on a show for us. For Drama there were a few skits and small plays. For Visual Arts there was a slideshow with lots of different kinds of artwork. For Fashion there was a bit of a Fashion Show. For Design there was another slide show with a lot of photos. For cooking there was an original recipe passed out with a sample of the food. It was absolutely delicious of course. For architecture they simply showed photos of the new building that had gone up under the students' blueprints. Written Arts had copies of a book of short stories handed out. Music and dance put on a dance routine to the singing of a group of students.

_**XXXXXXX**_

Melody was lying on her bed, the bottom bunk, when the door opened. She didn't even turn her head to look who it was though, as she was too deep into a book to notice much. Then whoever had entered tripped on something and fell flat on her face in the middle of the room. Melody jolted, finally noticing the girl and jumped up to help her.

"Are you okay?" she asked the fallen mobian. The mobian sat up dizzily and shook her head to clear it. Then she met Melody's concerned face with a smile.

"Oh I'll be fine." She waved Melody off and stood up. Melody was surprised to find that her roommate, a blue fox with bright yellow eyes, had a very obvious British accent. "My name's Kristen, what's yours?"

"Melody. Do you live in the UK?" she asked with a curious look.

"Not for this school year I don't, but I was born there and lived there all my life up until now. I like your name, by the way. You think I'll get too popular with my accent? I hear you Yankees love a British accent."

"Yeah, we do. But I think you'll be fine. This isn't exactly a normal public school after all."

"Thanks. Have you made any friends yet? I mean besides me, because being your roommate I'm kinda your friend by default."

"Only one so far, but I sat next to a couple boys at Orientation. They were very nice. My friend's name is Amy Rose and I met her this morning. We spied on the same boys with a few others at lunch. I felt so weird doing something that girly."

"Boys eh? Did they look any good?" Kristen asked mischievously.

"The fox was adorable, Sonic and the light gray hedgehog were okay, and Shadow…hmm I don't know how to describe him."

"By the name I'd say he's just the bee's knees, right?" She smiled knowingly.

"Yeah." Melody agreed. But he's weird. With their waitress he was such a gentleman but when he talked to the other guys he was sharp tongued and kinda mean."

"You'll just have to point him out to me. You will won't you?"

"Sure, he's much my type anyway."

"Alright, than he's fair game. Do you know if he has a girlfriend?"

"I really don't know. He doesn't seem like he's from around here, like most of us I guess. What do you think about the climate here?"

"I read up about this place and I can't wait to see it in winter. I hear it's simply smashing."

"It's gorgeous, but it gets really cold."

"Oh well, it can't be helped. So what does Shadow look like?"

"He's got black fur, I know that. His side quills fold up and every one of his quills is topped with a red streak. His eyes are red too, which makes him look creepy at a glance. But my brother has light red eyes so I'm used to it."

"Hmm… sounds good to me. I don't mind the red eyes either, I mean everyone has their faults, right?" Kristin said.

"You have such better style than I do. You should take me shopping some time."

"I will definitely take you up on that offer." Kristen said. She was wearing a striped gray and white long sleeve shirt that loosely fit to her curves and a gray miniskirt. She had average tennis shoes and socks that went up to her thighs that had a pattern of tiny pink, green, blue, and white stripes. "You look nice too, Melody."

Melody was wearing a dark blue dress that had short sleeves, a skirt that went down to just above her knees, and a black cloth belt adorned with a silver crescent. Her boots were black and white. The toes and heels were green and there were wavy purple streaks on the sides. Her long black, purple streaked hair was put up in a pony tail that nearly reached her thighs.

"Thanks Kristen. Hey, you should come have dinner with me tonight. It'd be nice to have another girl along, seeing as Amy's not going to be coming."

"Why's she not coming?"

"She has plans already and she wants to go to bed on time. She's an early bird when it comes to school." Melody explained as Kristen started to unpack.

"I see, so tell me more about Amy and these boys too!"

_(End of Chapter 4)_

_AN: Okay that's it. Pretty boring for a chapter if you ask me but I've read this chapter so many times I'm not surprised I'm bored. Chapter five will be up for New Years because I had to split the real chapter four into two parts and didn't feel like doing something stupid like naming this half Chapter four part 1 or anything so next chapter if number five, not four part 2._

_I will make SO many references to the canon world in this story. AND I'll throw in a lot of the insults that are thrown at the canon characters. Silver's quills for instance, or Shadow 'cheating' with his hover skates, or Amy being daft, or Knuckles being stupid, or Rouge being a… well… you already know that insult so I'm just not going to say it. Yes I know I've said I didn't like swearing, but sometimes it's just necessary to make a point. Especially when it's Shadow._

_Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, all that jazz… (Jazz Hands!)_

_Next up: We learn about Shadow. That's pretty much it. They have diner, go back to the dorms, Melody and Shadow stare at each other and smile like idiots, and then we're ready for chapter six. Yes I DARE to make fun of my own story. BYE! :D_


	5. I Won't Forget You

_**AN:**__ I finally got a good idea for chapter five so I tried to finish it as fast as possible. I've been working on improving my writing while I had a writer's block for this story. I worked on the novel I'm developing a little, wrote a couple little fanfiction things that came to my head, and did a bit of word research. I hope you guys can see a little bit of a change. Title comes from one of my personal favorite songs, __Goodbye__ by __Audio Adrenaline__. Check it out, it's amazing. Read, Review, and Enjoy!_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter Five: I Won't Forget You_

"Excuse me, are you ready to order now?" the waitress asked. The boys turned to her. Silver glanced at his menu one last time. Shadow looked around the table and the other boys nodded to him. Shadow turned back to the waitress with a polite smile.

"Yes, I believe we are. Thank you Miss." he answered with a nod. The other boys had to keep themselves from laughing at the way Shadow treated the girl. They ordered quickly, Shadow thanked the girl again, she took their menus, and then she left with a giggle. Shadow turned back to his friends. They all looked rather amused.

"Dude, if you keep doing that whole gentleman act you're going to have fangirls and believe me they're not as great as they sound." Sonic said with a small laugh. "They'll ruin all of your relationships, tear you to pieces, tear each other to pieces fighting over you, and you won't even be able to walk down the hallway without some girl or another flirting with you."

"Sonic, I've never had a single friend outside of my family before. Unlike some of us, I use proper manners with girls when they deserve it." Shadow replied. He took off his jacket and hung it on his chair behind him. Sonic shrugged his off and let it fall onto the back of the chair carelessly.

"Does that mean you've never been on a date?" Silver asked innocently. Sonic burst out laughing at Shadow's guilty expression. Shadow flashed Silver a dry glare. Silver glanced up at them and Tails just put a hand over his open mouth in shock.

"Shadow, dude, that's bad. A freshman in high school and you've never been on a single date in your life?" Sonic asked.

"Shh!" Shadow hissed. "I would rather you keep that fact quiet around here, moron. I don't need a bad rep so early in the school year."

"If it makes you feel any better, Shadow, I've only been on one date before." Tails half shrugged. Sonic gave Tails a look and turned back to Shadow again. He leaned forward, leaning on his folded arms on the table.

"We have got to find you someone to date." Sonic continued. "It's like, a coming of age ritual or something. It's really helpful when it comes to making friends with girls as well."

"No." Shadow said simply. Sonic looked at him as if he had suddenly turned into a child's TV show character. He sat back as a waiter came to their table with glasses of water and some pre-dinner garlic bread with heated sauce. Tails took a piece of the bread and started munching on it.

"Oh ha-ha nice joke, but seriously Shads, you need to date. It'll make people take you more seriously and they'll treat you more like a grown-up. Not to mention its lots of fun." Sonic said. He sipped his water. Silver took a piece of the bread as well and dipped it in the sauce.

"Do what you like, faker. I don't care." Shadow waved him off. He took a gulp of his drink through the straw. Tails took another piece of bread. "I don't want to date yet because I don't feel ready. And when I do date, it won't be just some pretty girl to make me look better on the outside. If I'm going to date, then the girl has to be herself. I don't want a carbon copy like most girls are these days. I want a girl who knows who she is and what she wants and won't stop until she gets it. And most of all, I want to get to know this girl before I date her."

"Picky, picky." Sonic criticized. He grabbed a piece of bread and dipped it in the sauce. He stuck it in his mouth and finished chewing before continuing his lecture. "Shadow, you're never going to find a girl like that in high school. Girls like that are very, very hard to find. It's good that you have high standards and everything, but if that's what you're looking for in a girl than you're going to be single for a long time, buddy."

"So you think I shouldn't be so picky? That I should lower my standards just to make a couple girls I don't like feel a little better?" Shadow asked sarcastically. He leaned back in his chair with his drink as Silver and Sonic leaned forwards, looking very serious.

"Yes." They answered in unison. Shadow rolled his eyes and leaned away from them. Tails put a hand behind his head and sat back with his drink to watch. Shadow took a piece of bread and carefully dipped it in the sauce. He started eating it as his friends continued lecture him.

"Girls are very sensitive, Shadow, even if some of them look tough on the outside." Silver informed, holding up his pointer finger in an effort to make a point. "If you're looking for the perfect girl then they're going to try to be that perfect girl, all for you. But when they all fall short of perfect, they'll feel like they don't deserve you."

"Talk about a major strike to their self-esteem." Sonic said. He put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "Think of it this way, Shads. Would you lower your standards if it meant making a few girls happier about themselves? There's this thing I do at home every Saturday. I'll go to this local club that was set up by my uncle for high school and middle school students to dance. The offer I put out is one dance per girl."

"It's all in the way he dances with the girls though." Tails continued with a smile. "I'll usually talk to the girls after they dance and the effect is amazing, Shadow. By letting the girls feel free of their inhibitions for a short time like that we've helped shy girls to not be so shy and tougher girls to open up a little. And they all have a lot of fun."

"I just got a really good idea." Silver said excitedly. The waitress came back with their food in her arms. Shadow stood up and caught one of the plates just as it was starting to fall. He handed the plate to its owner, Sonic.

"Oops, thanks." The girl said. She passed out the food and left them with a wave and a smile. Shadow sat back down and they all looked towards Silver.

"So what's this good idea then?" Tails asked, sitting up to start eating his food. As the other boys started eating, Silver's smile grew into a grin.

"We should try to make a Saturday night dance club for the students here." Silver said, his eyes twinkled with excitement. Sonic's eyes opened wider and his fork froze in front of his open mouth. He put the fork down and put his chin in his hand, leaning on his arm. Tails coughed on his food and swallowed hard.

"A what?" Shadow asked in disbelief.

"Do you know how hard that would be?" Tails asked. "We'd need a place, a-and music, and lighting, and sound equipment, and –" Tails was cut off as Silver raised a hand.

"Just here me out, okay?" He asked. The boys nodded and kept eating. "We could use one of the gyms, and there's plenty of talent here so we wouldn't have to hire DJ's or professional musicians and singers. It could be a student run night club for Saturday nights only."

"I think it's a great idea!" Sonic praised. Shadow and Tails looked at each other, before staring at their plates thoughtfully. Silver smiled gratefully and put a fork-full of food in his mouth. "We could host staff nights too every now and then to give the staff a reward for their hard work. It's got to be really hard to run a school this big and this successful."

"Now that I think about it, we might be able to pull it off." Tails agreed, warming up to the idea. "Sonic you could do your dancing-with-girls thing, and it'd be a great way to raise money for the school. We can't make entrance fees too expensive and we can't sell alcohol."

"We could get the different art subjects involved." Shadow offered, getting a look in his eyes that said the gears in his brain were starting to turn. "A bar run by the cooking students, the music and dance kids can work with the preforming arts kids to handle entertainment. Architecture can be in charge of decorations, fashion kids could do beauty nights or whatever for the girls and prep time for the guys before they go."

"What about Writing?" Sonic asked. "If we're going to get the others Arts involved then we're getting all of them into this."

"That means Design, Visual Arts, and Writing too." Tails agreed.

"It's only fair." Silver half-shrugged. Shadow nodded in agreement. Sonic shoved more food into his mouth. Silver bit his knuckles in thought. Silence set in as the boys tried to think of a way to get the other Arts involved.

"We could let the Writing kids use the club for poetry nights or storytelling." Tails offered an idea. Shadow's head snapped up as he got an idea of his own.

"Design and Visual arts can help with decoration instead of Architecture. Preforming Arts can get us sound and lighting equipment." Shadow said. He took another bite of food. Tails put his mouth back to the straw of his drink. "I can offer a little bit on my own too. My grandfather has this old disco ball in his attic. My cousin and I would play with it when we were younger. I'm sure he'd be okay with donating it. We'd have to get it fixed up and polished of course, but it still works."

"That's perfect Shadow." Silver laughed. Sonic took a drink of his water, but stopped when he realized Shadow had just cut out Architecture.

"Then what does Architecture do?" Sonic inquired with a hard look. He stabbed his fork in Shadow's direction. "Everyone has to help with this."

"I'm not excluding them. They can build us a portable stage. They can also be the ones in charge of taking care of that stage." Shadow smirked. Sonic shook a finger at Shadow as a toothy grin grew on his face.

"You clever little devil." He chuckled. He put more food into his mouth and the rest of the boys followed his lead and continued eating. "I like this plan!"

"We'll need at least one person from each Art to be in charge of their students." Tails said. "That way we're not the only kids running things."

"Well what about Student Council?" Tails offered. "We've got to tell them about all this and get their permission first before anything else. We've also got to get a teacher to host it."

They spent the rest of diner talking about their plan for a Saturday Night Club. Silver and Shadow made Sonic pay the bill as revenge for waking them up. The boys stood when they were finished, put their coats back on, and left the restaurant. None of them noticed two girls stand from their table soon after and look at each other with excitement dancing in their eyes as they left the restaurant as well.

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" Kristin exclaimed as they left the restaurant. Melody hugged herself in excitement.

"These boys are going to start a school wide revolution!" Melody agreed. "If they keep coming up with great ideas like this, this school is going to go from being number three in the country, to being number one! This is going to be the best year ever!"

"This is so exciting; I can't believe we're really going to have something like this at school. Just wait, by Christmas those boys are going to be so super popular." Kristin said. She hooked her arm in Melody's and they chatted for a while on their way back to the school. Melody became too lost in her thoughts to notice where the boys were. Kristin started chatting up a storm about her home in England.

The girls only noticed the guys when they got to their dormitory building and the guys walked right past them. Melody, feeling a tad melancholy, glanced at them. Kristin, on the other hand, giggled and quickly went inside. Melody hesitated. Shadow turned at the sound of Kristin's giggling and looked her straight in the eye. They stayed that way for a moment, eyes locked on each other's. Then he gave her a small, reassuring smile. She curled her own lips into a similar smile and waved slowly. Shadow's smile grew just a tad bigger and he saluted her.

Kristin chose that moment to grab Melody's wrist and tug her into the building. Melody shook her head to clear it and let Kristin lead her back to the dorm. Once there they changed into their PJ's. Melody's were dark blue and covered in silver stars. Kristin's were pale pink with purple music notes all over them. They slipped into the bathroom together and pulled out their toothbrushes and toothpaste. Kristin picked up Melody's tube of toothpaste as Melody stuck her toothbrush into her mouth.

"You use this too?" Kristin asked. Melody nodded, unable to talk with toothpaste in her mouth. "I use this at home but my brothers wouldn't let me take it with me so I stole my mum's."

Melody giggled a little and brushed on the other side of her mouth. Kristin put her own toothbrush into her mouth and started on her molars. Melody switched to her canines and incisors. There was a knock at the door and Kristin left the bathroom to get it, toothbrush still in mouth. Melody poked her head out of the bathroom to see who it was. Kristin opened the door and a female lioness staff member was standing there.

"You two are freshmen, right?" She asked. Kristin and Melody both nodded. The lady handed Kristin a thin packet of paper. "This is a list of things that have to be clean for Saturday morning inspections, meal information, a map, a list of basic dorm rules, and then a list of campus rules and regulations. Thanks girls."

The staff lady left and Kristin closed the door. She locked it and went back to the bathroom as Melody pulled her head back inside. She spit into the sink and grabbed the green plastic cup on the counter. She filled it with water and rinsed her mouth out. Kristin waited until she was done before grabbing the blue plastic cup and rinsing as well.

"Let's take a look at those rules, shall we?" Melody offered. They went back into the main room and got comfy in their beds. Kristin started leading the rules and information out loud.

"Dorm rules: one, curfew is at nine thirty and the doors lock at nine forty. Anyone not in the dorms will be locked out until the next morning. The locks are on a timer." Kristin read. Melody snuggled farther under her down comforter. "Two, no boys in the Girls' Dorms and vice versa. Three, no electric blankets, halogen lamps, extension cords that run under rugs or furniture, toasters, toaster ovens, paper lanterns, candles, incense, space heaters, microwaves, or 6-headed lamps. These are fire hazards and or risk overheating."

"That's a long list." Melody noted. "But it's reasonable too."

"Four, no smoking in dorms. Five, no alcohol. Six, no pets, but fish are allowed. Seven, no food in dorms. Eight, weekday quiet hours are between seven thirty PM and nine o'clock AM. Weekend quiet hours are from nine thirty PM to ten o'clock AM." Kristin continued. She yawned but kept reading. "All rules are in place to ensure the safety and comfort of those living in the dorms. They're also there to make sure students can study, practice, and live in peace and quiet. Please be respectful of your roommate, your neighbors, the room above, the room below, your environment, the school staff, and the building. Every room will be checked to make sure these rules are being followed and to make sure the dorms are clean and organized every Saturday morning at ten thirty. Thank you for your consideration and respect for the rules."

"We can read the rest tomorrow, Kristin." Melody said. Kristin rolled over in bed to hang upside down from the top bunk. Melody turned onto her side and looked at her friend. "It's getting late. We need our sleep for the first day of classes."

"Then can we talk about something else until we fall asleep?" Kristin asked readily. Melody laughed a little.

"Why not?" She answered. Kristin smiled and disappeared back onto her own bunk. Melody rolled over onto her back once more and looked at the bottom of Kristin's bunk.

"Melody, have you ever lost anyone?" Kristin asked. Melody stiffened a little and didn't answer right away. "Melody?"

"Where is this coming from so suddenly?" Melody asked instead of answering.

"I saw you after orientation but you looked different from when you're with me."

"Different how?" Melody asked, curious as to what difference there could be.

"Well… you looked lonelier. You talk a lot about your brother, but not about much else." Kristin said. Her tone was one of concern. "What about your parents? Why don't you ever mention them? You never say family either, you just say brother. Earlier you said everyone misses their family when they're gone for so long, but I feel like you said that sentence wrong. Shouldn't it be that we all miss our families when we're gone for so long? And then there's – Melody what's wrong?"

Kristin broke off as she thought she heard a sniffle from below her. Melody didn't answer, but there was another sniffle. Kristin rolled over again and peeked at Melody as she hung upside down once more. Melody was turned towards the wall and trembling just a little. Kristin repeated her question of concern.

"Just stop…" Melody answered quietly. Kristin could hear the depressed tone of her voice. She flipped over, climbed down, and sat down on Melody's bunk next to her. She put a hand on her back gently. "Please don't talk about things like that."

"What? Family?" Kristin asked. Melody flinched a little and nodded. Kristin rubbed her back slowly in circles. "It's okay. I'm sorry if I upset you. Do you have family problems at home? Is that why you don't talk about it?"

"I guess you could call it that." Melody agreed. She sighed and turned her head towards Kristin. "The only thing I can say is that my brother is the only one I can rely on completely. Everyone else broke my trust in them, but my brother's always been there to take care of me. I don't really consider my parents family anymore."

"That's okay. At least you've got him right? And he sounds like such a hunky-dory guy. All my brothers are big teases." Kristin said, trying to comfort her. Melody giggled a little turned over onto her back.

"What does hunky-dory mean?" She asked with a smile.

"You would say super, or excellent." Kristin explained with her own smile. "Good to see you smiling."

"Thanks Kristin. I'm glad I got you as my roommate."

"And I'm happy to be your mate." Kristin agreed. "That mean friend."

"I knew that!" Melody laughed. "I'm not completely out of sync when it comes to British slang."

Kristin climbed back up onto her bed. Melody laid back and they were quiet for a while, but then a question came to Melody's mind.

"Why _did_ you ask that question?" She asked. Kristin was quiet for a while.

"My mom called earlier. My grandpa had a heart attack this morning." Kristin answered quietly. Melody slung her feet out of bed and stood on the edge of the bunk. Her hair, which was free of its ponytail, swayed as she moved. It settled back down against her back softly, making her shiver a little at its feather-light touch.

"Is he okay?" Melody asked. Kristin turned to her and nodded. Melody breathed a sigh of relief and allowed herself to smile a little.

"It's scary to think that someone I know so well could just leave so suddenly. I wish I knew what it was like so I could prepare myself in case it happens again and he isn't okay." Kristin sighed. Melody climbed up onto her bunk and Kristin sat up. Melody put her arm around her roommate. "I'm not particularly close with my grandfather, but he's family. I know who he is and my mother loves him so much. She's very close with him. I don't want to see my mum sad, Melody."

"Well… I imagine losing someone you know would be difficult, but you'd have to keep in mind that it's hard for everyone else who knew him too." Melody started. Her eyes grew distant as memories played through her mind. Kristin watched her face carefully. "You have to be considerate to the others who lost him. You can't focus on yourself, but you have to let yourself mourn at the same time. Goodbyes are always really hard, but the ones that are caused by death are the worst. When someone dies they take little pieces of the souls who they knew and loved so that they don't have to be lonely on their journey to whatever's after this life. My brother said that once."

"You sound like you know what you're talking about." Kristin mumbled. She took Melody's free hand in her own. "You look like that too."

"I suppose I might." Melody responded vaguely. She frowned a little and looked at Kristin. "You're going to make me tell you why, right?"

"If it's not too hard on you…" Kristin nodded. Melody sighed and glanced at the ceiling.

"I had an old friend of mine die a few years ago in a horrible car accident." Melody admitted. Kristin nodded for her to continue. "She was on her way home from a Winter Choir Concert. She'd just done her first solo and her parents couldn't have been prouder. She pulled it off marvelously. Her mother was driving her home and their car slid on some ice at an intersection as they tried to stop. Combine that with a drunk driver in a pickup truck and you get a horrible mess. It was a T-shaped hit. The pickup hit the side of their small car, but it kept going. The driver had been knocked out from the alcohol and his foot was stuck on the accelerator. The two cars hit another car and all three landed in the ditch. The pickup landed on top of my friend's car, the third car landed next to it."

"What happened to your friend's mom and the other drivers?" Kristin asked, trying to be sympathetic.

"The drunk lived, the driver of the third car lived, but my friend's mom didn't make it either." Melody answered. Kristin hugged her tightly. "I wanted to kill that drunk driver for a while, but my brother said revenge would never solve anything. I sang at her and her mother's funeral. It was hard to keep going after that, but I knew I had to. Life moves on and it drags the rest of it with it. I was tempted to let go of life, but then my brother found this school and told me he wanted me to go. We made it our goal that I would get here and I did."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Kristin said in an attempt to sympathize with her. Melody shook her head and smiled.

"Nah, I'm okay now." Melody smiled. Kristin let go of her. "See the important thing is to never forget the person who leaves you. But the trick to that is forgetting about when they died. You've got to remember the times they were alive. If you let yourself forget their smile, their laugh, or all the little moments that meant nothing at the time, then you'll forget how to be happy."

"Thanks Melody." Kristin smiled. Melody climbed back down to stand on the edge of her bunk. Kristin snuggled back down under the blankets.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Melody grinned. She swung onto her own bed and reached over to the nightstand. She turned off the lamp and pulled the blankets over herself. "Goodnight Kristin."

"Night Melody."

_**XXXXXXX**_

Shadow climbed up onto his own bunk. Sonic had long since been asleep on his own bed. The snoring bugged him a little, but it wasn't that loud so Shadow could deal with it. He looked up at the ceiling as a question wandered into his thoughts. His expression grew melancholy. He closed his eyes slowly and sighed. He reopened his eyes and turned his head to the left. He saw the windows and sat up.

He paused for a moment and looked down at the blankets, and then he threw one of his pillows to the ground. He climbed down after it, picked it up, and went over to the window. He unlocked it and pushed it open. He put the pillow on the sill and leaned his elbows on it. He stared out at the sky as the stars twinkled back at him and took a deep breath. The night air was a little crisp with a slight chill, but it wasn't too bad.

He twisted around and looked above him. He narrowed his eyes at the roof and ducked back inside. He glanced at Sonic to make sure he was still sleeping. He grabbed the pillow and tucked it under one of his arms. Then he dug into his quills and pulled out the Chaos Emerald. He heard fabric shuffling and a yawn so he turned around to see Sonic was awake, but groggy.

"What are you doing, Shadow?" Sonic asked. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. "You should be asleep, we've got classes tomorrow."

"I'll go to bed in a minute. What are you, my mother?" Shadow retorted in a low tone. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Kay, but it's not my fault if you can't concentrate tomorrow because you're too tired." He yawned. Sonic rolled over and went back to sleep. Shadow turned back to the Chaos Emerald in his hands. He concentrated on its energy and imagined it incasing his whole body. He spread the energy out until he was absolutely positive he had all of his body parts, his clothes, and his quills incased in the energy. Then he brought the image of the roof up in his mind.

"Chaos….Control." He whispered. The Emerald flashed brightly and Shadow disappeared. The flash made Sonic rolled back over, but all he saw was a dark room. He shrugged and rolled back over again. In a few minutes he was back to snoring.

Another flash lit the air like a bolt of lightning above the dorms. Shadow cursed himself under his breath as he fell a full foot to the roof. He scrambled to get a grip on the peak of the roof. When he had it he reached over and caught his pillow as it slid past him. He put the pillow on the peak and climbed up to sit on it. He looked out at the city skyline and sighed. The chill in the air made his breath turn to thin mist. He saw a few lighted windows on the Girls' Dormitory and wondered briefly is any of them belonged to the girl from earlier. He shrugged to no one and looked back at the skyline. It glowed faintly from the city lights, but hovering just above it the stars shone brightly. He slid down the wall and lay down on it with his hands tucked behind his head. His quills caught in the thin spaces between the tiles and kept him from sliding off the roof.

He looked up at the sky and allowed his mind to wander. He used to do this at home, but instead of a roof he'd be lying in the tree house that he and his family had built two summers ago. His mother and the Professor had built it, and then he and Maria had painted and decorated it. They hung out in there all the time doing anything and everything. Once they'd even gotten a lot extension cords, snuck the TV into the tree house, and hooked the game console up to the TV. They'd played video games in the tree house all afternoon until Shadow's mom had found the extension cords and grounded him from the TV for a month. He and Maria still laughed about it though. The memory made him smile.

He was startled when his phone started vibrating in his quills. He pulled it out and checked the caller ID. He quickly flipped it open and put it to his ear.

"What in the world are you doing awake?" He scolded in surprise. "Grandpa's going to kill you for staying up this late."

"_You didn't call me so I figured you got busy and waited to call you, but then Grandpa distracted me with his recent breakthrough in Chaos Energy. He can't wait to test it on you over thanksgiving break."_ The reply was the familiar lighthearted warm voice of his beloved cousin. He laughed quietly. _"So you're not mad at me for calling you this late? I didn't think you'd be up so I was planning on just leaving a message."_

"Nah, my thoughts were keeping me awake so I teleported to the roof. It's colder at night up here, but I kinda like the chill." He replied. He looked out at the stars and breathed deeply for a moment. "You'd like it up here. The stars are so bright and the city skyline is such a different horizon from the treetop-lined one at home."

"_I bet. Grandpa took me to a big city once, but I doubt it was as big as Westopolis is."_

"Big city, but I'm going to go check out those subways later this week."

"_To see if those rumors about really cool subway performers are true or to see if you can find any familiar faces?" _

"Both I guess. Maria, what if they don't recognize me?"

"_Shadow, I don't think anyone could ever forget who you are. And if they don't believe you then just tell them secret things about themselves that no one but you would know. It always works on TV."_

"And if they think I'm some sort of spy?" Shadow asked, raising an eyeridge.

"_Shadow why do you have to make everything so difficult sometimes?"_ Maria laughed. _"Of course they'll remember you. You may have gotten taller, and grown red highlights, but how many hedgehogs in Westopolis have red eyes? Do you know how rare an eye color that is?"_

"I saw a girl with violet eyes after dinner." Shadow offered.

"_Violet is violet, red is red. I thought you were supposed to be an artist."_

"Not all artists have to be super specific about colors, you know."

"_But you are, so face it. They'll recognize you."_

"What if they hate me for leaving?"

"_Shadow, stop this and tell me what's really on your mind. I know you only come up with these what-if's when something else is bothering you so spit it out."_

"Fine… what if she's not with them and they don't know anything about what happened to her and I can't find her?" He asked, biting his lip anxiously. "I need to find her, Maria. I need to know what happened."

"_I know you do, but give it time. You've got four whole years there, Shadow."_

"What if four years isn't enough? What if I take too long and miss her? What if she's not even alive anymore?"

"_Then do as I said and remember her as she was, a loving lady you took in six homeless little kids and kept them safe for a good majority of their childhoods. Remember her as what she was to you, Shadow."_

"And then I'll have to explain to Porcupine that she's gone." Shadow sighed. "I won't let it come to that, Maria. I won't be able to break that kind of news to him. He's only ever known Ms. Robotnik for a mother. How's he going to react to the facts that I never told him about his real mother and then when I did it was only to tell him that she was dead?"

"_Then tell him soon so he knows."_

"You know I can't do that."

"_No I don't think I do. So why can't you?"_

"Because he's too young, Maria. He adores me and looks up to me. I have to be the brother worth looking up to, but telling him about all that would mean admitting that I was once a criminal! I can't break his heart like that."

"_Wow you're really stuck between a rock and a hard place, aren't you?"_

"I miss her, Maria… I've accepted Ms. Robotnik as my mother, but she's not a replacement. I know she really wants to be my real mother, but even her kindness can't replace the bond of blood a kid has with its mother. I have to do this. I just have to find her and the Captain."

"_I know you do, but you're never going to find them tonight so get your butt back into your dorm and go to sleep. We can talk more tomorrow when you've got more time. I want to hear about __everything__ tomorrow, got it?"_

"I can do that." Shadow smiled. "Good night Maria."

"_G'night Shadow!"_

_**XXXXXXX**_

_AN: I just noticed that my chapters had been getting shorter so I made this one longer than the last one by about 3,000 words. :D Anyway I'm so sorry that it took so long to post this chapter. I had a huge writer's block on what to do for the boys' dinner conversation. I'm a girl in high school, but I have close to no idea at all of what guys my age talk about with each other. _

_Next up we finally get to meet the final member of Team Sonic, Knuckles! Oh dear… Melody's gone and gotten herself into trouble…. Shadow meets Melody at least, but – ouch! Ooo… maybe I shouldn't have been so mean to him…_

_Thanks for Reading!_

_~Silvershadow145_


	6. I Was A Lonely Soul

_AN: I'm back! Just kidding, I came back out of hiding with the last chapter. This one was all ready to go and everything, but I just couldn't figure out chapter five. Again, Sorry for that. So here we have Knuckles finally being added to the group. And I want to give you guys a little insight to the format this story is going to take. After this first week things are going to speed up a little. Instead of going day by day like this we're going to be skipping days and maybe even a week or two. This first weekend is going to play out day by day starting Friday and going through Sunday evening, but that's where this day by day thing stops. I'll let you know somehow in the chapters as to where we are timeline wise._

_So then, this story is ONLY going to be their First Year of high school. I repeat, this story is just their Freshman year. In fact I'll be changing the title of the story soon, just a little bit. It should still be recognizable, very recognizable, so there should be no trouble in finding it if you search for the right things. You know, if you search specifically for a story in which the main characters are set as Sonic and Shadow, the categories are set as Drama/Friendship, it's incomplete, it's in English, it's been updated within the last week, and rated K- T, my story is the first on the list right now. XD_

_So anyways, this story is now going to be called Emerald Arts High School: Year 1. Yes that means there will be a sequel. I've got all this planned out. There'll be one story per school year. I'll be writing nothing of their summers, but I will be doing breaks. So there's going to be four stories in this series. After that if you guys want me to write more for this series I may think about it. Maybe I'll post an epilogue story, just in case you might want more. _

_I'll try to stay away from centering so much on Shadow and Melody. My OC and my favorite character are very attention grabby. Tails should have some of the spot light soon as well as Silver and maybe even Kristin and Amy. They'll all need some character development before this story's main conflict REALLY kicks off. Last chapter at the end you got an insight as to what Shadow's past was like. Teehee. You won't be getting another one of those for a while so try and milk that scene for ALL the little details I put in there. Every single word could mean something you don't understand. :P 'Cause after this is the Robotniks this and the Robotniks that. :D Maria and Gerald are so much fun to write, as if Kyle. I love little Kyle…_

_Read, Review, and Enjoy!_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter 6: I Was a Lonely Soul_

"Wake up!" Someone screamed in Silver's ear. His reflexes kicked into action. Silver, not being fully awake, leaped into the air and slammed his head on the ceiling. He caught himself with his telekinesis and hovered in the air as he rubbed his sore head. Then he glanced down at the floor and noticed a strange looking red mobian looking up at him in shock.

He realized he was floating and reflexively turned it off. He only succeeded in falling to the floor. The red guy caught him, but then dropped him just as suddenly. He winced as his head hit the floor, but picked himself up again. The guy just stared at him while he dusted himself off and shook the plaster crumbs from the ceiling out of his quills.

"How… in Holy Emeralds… did you do that?" the guy asked slowly, finally getting over the initial shock.

"I… uh… I'm telekinetic?" Silver offered meekly, looking the creature up and down he started to get a little scared. He was mobian, but he was no mobian creature that Silver had ever seen before. He had dreadlocks that hung down just past his shoulders, a white sideways crescent on his bare chest, and deep violet eyes. His nose was pointed and he had no visible ears, but there was one feature about him that made Silver really curious. This stranger had two white spikes growing out of each hand. He wasn't wearing gloves or shoes or even a shirt, just khaki shorts. This must have been Silver's roommate.

"Telekinetic. Are you serious?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Yup." Silver said with a tentative smile. The guy laughed and shook Silver's hand with a strong grip.

"Cool. I'm Knuckles the echidna."

"What's an echidna?" Silver asked, scratching his head in confusion.

"They're related to hedgehogs, I think. But I'm the only one left." Knuckles answered. He stabbed his thumb into his chest proudly.__"I have no idea who my parents are and I've been living on an island since I ran away from the dumb orphanage I was living in. By the way, you never told me your name."

"Silver."

"Nice, so how was the orientation I missed the other day?" Knuckles asked, walking into the bathroom. Silver shook away his own surprise and went over to his dresser to start digging through the drawers.

"It was really good, actually. You missed out on some really great stuff. Best party I've ever been to."

"Really? I was expecting it to be a boring lecture on school rules and such." Knuckles answered from the bathroom.

"Ha. It was anything but!" Silver exclaimed, pulling out a black T-shirt with nine small white sick figures and two slightly taller stick figures; a stick figure representation of his family. Some of the stick figures were girls and some were boys.

"Aw come on, that's it? Give me details!" Knuckles called as he left the bathroom and went over to his dresser next to Silver's.

"Okay, well first the top three music teachers and the guy in charge of the Music department put on a show by singing Good Time by Owl City. Then the principle let the Head Teachers introduce themselves. They all looked like really cool people, except the one in charge of fashion. She looked a little stuck up." Silver spent the half hour of getting ready talking to Knuckles about Orientation. Once they were both ready for school they grabbed their packed backpacks and left the dorm behind. __

"Dang you're right; I did miss something good!" Knuckles said as they headed southwest into the school campus.

_**XXXXXXX**_

Melody shoved her hands in her pockets and trudged up the stairs to the music building. The building held classrooms, small stages, recording studios, sound proof testing and practice rooms, and the broadcasting studios for the school radio channel that music students often were asked to sing or play for. Students could tune in easily on campus and the radio station was broadcasted throughout the city. A lot of people listened to it because it was often filled to the brim with good, singers on the brink of being celebrities.

Melody though, wasn't in a good mood. Thinking about her past so close to falling asleep had brought on a night filled with nightmares, and little good sleep. She walked into class and only just registered that Shadow was sitting in the third row from the front with Sonic right next to him. Sonic was poking him rapidly, but Shadow was fending off the pokes with his hand just as fast. Melody almost giggled at the sight, but moved past and sat down in the row behind the very front one.

She put the sliding desk over her lap and pulled out her notebook and mechanical pencil. Seeing that class wouldn't start for a while, she pulled out her sketchbook and started to draw the first random face she saw, which was actually Kristin, who had left the dorm earlier for breakfast. Kristin didn't notice her though, which was probably for the better. Melody was too tired for her optimism and cheerfulness.

Drawing Kristin did, however, make Melody's mood lighten just enough for class to roll smoothly. As soon as the teacher walked onto the small stage in the front of the classroom, the class fell silent and Melody hurried to put away her sketchbook. The teacher was the tiger from yesterday's orientation presentation, Mr. Trisen. There was a piano on stage but he went to the podium instead, straightening his tie. He cleared his throat and the whispers fell silent as well.

"Well, good morning class and welcome to EHS! Today is more of an evaluation day however. But it's a _class_ evaluation day. We'll be doing these every few weeks so that we know how good we're getting at teaching, and so you know how better at your talent you're getting. If you're in this class, we're teaching vocals. If you were supposed to be in a different class, leave now thanks."

No one in the room moved or spoke a word, staring up at him in full attention.

"So how'd you like yesterday's performance?!" the teacher suddenly exclaimed, laughing off his hidden nervousness. "As I was saying, today we'll have you kids come on up here one at a time and sing something for the rest of the class. The rest of the class will be filling out evaluation papers for the singers that come up today. We won't have time for everyone, but we'll get to you eventually during the year. Mrs. Haley do you have that list yet?"

The female rabbit singer from yesterday stepped out onto the stage and handed a piece of paper to Mr. Trisen. He opened it and scanned it up and down. He grinned and jabbed the paper with a finger.

"That one; the lovely girl that sent in the amazing video. Is a Ms. Melody the Hedge-Fox here?"

Melody froze as her name was called and students started looking around for the kid in mention. She gulped and gathered her courage. She stood up and all eyes landed on her. She met Kristin's eyes as she walked over to aisle. Kristin grinned and gave her a thumbs-up and a rapid nod. That made Melody feel better. She raised her head a little bit and walked up onto the stage to join the teacher. He grinned and shook her hand.

"Well, there she is! Melody you're video surprised a lot of us vocals teachers. It was different, and that's good. Please, pick a song from this songbook and I'll play it for you on the piano. Mrs. Haley please pass out the evaluation sheets."

Mrs. Haley did as she was told and Mr. Trisen handed Melody a black binder. It was sorted by artist, then album. She searched through the artists, picked one and was surprised by how much was there. There was a lot from this particular artist. She gave the binder back once she had chosen her song and Mr. Trisen handed her a more portable microphone than the one on the podium. Melody moved to center stage and waited for the music to start. Mr. Trisen sat down at the piano.

She took a deep breath, settled herself and nodded once. The music started and the lights dimmed till there was only a spot light on her and she couldn't see the class, though she knew they could see her. She closed her eyes and started to sing. Before she knew it that rebellious, stronger side of her was taking over and she was enjoying herself.

"_Days like this I want to drive away,  
Pack my bags and watch your shadow fade.  
You chewed me up and spit me out,  
Like I was poison in your mouth.  
You took my light, you drained me down.  
That was then and this is now.  
Now look at me." _

Melody's voice got stronger and she snapped her eyes open. She dropped one of her hands back down to her side. The words of the song rang true for her personally, but she allowed herself to smile. This louder side didn't come out very often, but she knew it was there. She wished it would come out more when she needed it.

"_This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no!  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no!  
Throw your sticks and stones  
Throw your bombs and your blows  
But you're not gonna break my soul  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no_

"_I just wanna throw my phone away  
Find out who is really there for me  
You ripped me off, your love was cheap  
Was always tearing at the seams  
I fell deep and you let me drown  
But that was then and this is now"_

Melody was singing it a lot softer than the original version, but her voice still had the same impact as the original did. She found herself opening up more to the music and forgot about the audience completely.

"_Now look at me  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no_

"_Throw your sticks and stones  
Throw your bombs and your blows  
But you're not gonna break my soul  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no_

"_Now look at me, I'm sparkling  
A firework, a dancing flame  
You won't ever put me out again  
I'm glowing, oh woah oh_

"_So you can keep the diamond ring  
I never liked them anyway  
In fact you can keep everything  
Yeah, yeah  
Except for me_

"_This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no (away from me)_

"_Throw your sticks and stones  
Throw your bombs and your blows  
But you're not gonna break my soul  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no_

"_This is the part of me, no, (away from me)  
This is the part of me, me, me, me, me, me, no_

"_Throw your sticks and stones  
Throw your bombs and your blows  
But you're not gonna break my soul  
This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no."_

Melody finished and her rebellious streak faded back into her. She ducked her head in shyness and handed the microphone back to the teacher as they met at the podium. He was staring at her silently with his mouth hanging open a little bit.

"Better than the video…" He muttered. She blushed, but was still confused about this video he was talking about. Melody had never sent in a video. Then, as if coming out of a daze, one person in the class began to clap. As the lights went back to normal Melody spotted the clapper. It was Shadow. Kristin was next to join in and slowly the whole class went from dead silence to cheering loudly and standing up from their seats.

Melody's shy blush deepened and she hurried back towards her seat as people started to quiet down again. She didn't know what they were all crazy about. She had just sung Katy Perry. It wasn't like she had sung Adele or Evanescence or Kelly Clarkson. Melody grabbed a rating sheet on her way back to her seat. Kristin turned and gave her a wide grin, but Melody didn't smile back. She was still kinda shaken up from the reaction of the crowd.

The teacher continued to stare at her for a moment and then shook his head like he was coming out of a trance or something. He looked back at the list and randomly poked it again. He called up the next student as Melody pulled out her pencil. She took quiet notes on the performances and tried to rate them fairly. She paid full attention to the teacher, but for the remainder of the class period she felt unnerving stares from her classmates. She felt very self-conscious.

Melody only snapped out of it when Shadow was called up to sing. She looked up and watched and listened carefully. He was confident, but at the same time he was modest. His song choice was good for the tone of his voice. At one point Melody was looking at him and her eyes caught his. They stared into each other's eyes while he sang and Melody could almost swear she heard him stumble on a word, just barely. Then he was looking a different direction and Melody blinked a little.

'_Just what happened there?'_ She thought after Shadow finished and the next kid went up. Melody caught Shadow's eyes once more as he approached her seat on the aisle. Again neither of them could break contact. Shadow recognized that broken look in her gaze, even though she was obviously trying her hardest to cover it up. She saw the quiet strength in his eyes. Silent support even though they didn't even know each other. The last person to look at her with such a strong, supporting gaze had been her brother when she boarded the train and waved goodbye.

At the thought tears suddenly welled up in Melody's eyes as memories of her family members saying goodbye popped in with the pain that always came from them. Shadow's supporting look suddenly turned curious and concerned, but he kept walking and sat down in his seat only two rows behind her.

_**XXXXXXX**_

'_Today'_ Shadow thought as he rated the next kid up. _'Today I will talk to her. She was mere seconds away from crying back there. I really want to know just what's bugging her so badly. I really don't like to see girls cry. It always makes me feel absolutely horrid when Maria cries'. _Shadow didn't like to see anyone suffering. Probably because Maria was suffering and there was nothing he could do about that. So, he just had to go and try to stop someone else's tears instead. It was one of the only ways he could live with his best friend slowly dying. Shadow clenched a fist and pressed his lips firmly together, glaring down at his sheet.

'_No. She will __**not**__die! Gerald and I will find a cure. There has to be one! I won't be able to handle losing her. It'd break me for sure.'_ Shadow growled in his head. He was drawn back to the class when the teacher handed the list back to the other teacher and addressed the class once more.

"That's all the time we have for singers today, class. Now for the remainder of our time together I am going to ask you to stand and go out into the lobby, but don't leave the building yet. I want you to socialize and discuss the singers you've viewed today. Which ones you liked more, which ones weren't so good. And don't forget to thank the singers for their performances. It was very brave of them to come up and sing in front of a lot of strangers. Please hand in your evaluation sheets to Mrs. Haley as you leave. Thanks guys, see you tomorrow!"

The tiger left the stage, the class woke up and started gathering their things, and Shadow lit up at the thought of finally getting to talk to Melody. He hurried to get out to the lobby of the building and find her, but when he got there he found her being pulled down a hallway by a group of boys. They were saying things to her he couldn't hear from where he was and their wicked smiles cued Shadow in on the fact that they were up to no good. He started to follow them, but stopped at a nearby drinking fountain to remain looking clueless. He pricked his ears up to listen.

"You're a little show off."

"And a suck-up."

"Let me go, I was just trying to do my best because I promised my brother I would!"

"Yeah right. You were obviously trying to be the little miss perfect of the year. We already have a top girl in school and you're not it. So shut your trap or you'll have more than just a few bruises to deal with."

Shadow had heard enough. He turned the corner into the hallway. They were about to go into an empty classroom. He growled lowly and moved closer to them, trying to look like a lost student. The boys noticed him and one of them approached him.

"Hey you, what are you doing down this hallway?" He asked.

"I-I'm lost. I'm a freshman. I got here late yesterday and didn't have time to find a map. D-do you know where room 126MB is?"

"You're going in the opposite direction of room 126MB, buddy. So turn around and go ask someone else." The boy snapped. Shadow's innocently lost look glanced at the boys behind the one he was talking to. His eyes locked with Melody's and he winked. Her eyes opened wider in surprise. He looked back at the taller, older boy in front of him and his innocent look suddenly changed to a dark glare.

"Nevermind, I think I found exactly what I was looking for. Troublemakers." Shadow hissed. He pulled back a fist and socked the kid in the cheek as hard as he could, shoving him out the way. He stalked up to the other boys, who were looking shocked, but very angry.

"We're just going to have a little fun, buddy, no need to get rough." The one closest to Shadow said. Shadow turned to the older teen faster than the kid could gasp and punched him in the gut. He boy gaped and grabbed at his winded middle. Shadow turned as the other kids, except one, let go of Melody and joined in attacking Shadow.

The numbers were seven against one, but Shadow had more knowledge of how to fight than they did. He also had more experience. In minutes he had all of them on the ground, holding some bruise or another or grasping their stomachs and gasping for air. Not a single punch had landed on him. He turned to the kid still holding Melody with a calm expression, as if nothing big had happened. He brushed something off his shoulder and straightened his black jacket.

"Shoo." he said simply. The kid, already scared silly, pushed Melody away in a hurry and scrambled off down the hallway as his buddies picked themselves up and scurried off as well. Shadow went up to Melody, who was still on the floor. His glare disappeared, replaced with concern. Melody still looked scared and in a slight panic. She looked up at Shadow blankly. "Are you okay?"

She shook away her trance of shock and nodded. He held out a hand for her. She took it gratefully and was pulled back onto her feet by a strong arm. She tried to smile, but their eyes met again and her face fell into depression. She hid her face with her hands as she felt the tears overflow from her eyes.

"Hey, calm down okay? They're gone and they're not coming back. Come on now, we have classes to get to." Shadow said as he pulled a small package of tissues out of his backpack's side pocket. He opened it and offered her one. She looked up into his eyes and Shadow was frozen by her deep violet irises once more.

She took the tissue and a deep breath as she tried to follow his advice and calm down. She blew her nose, took another tissue, and dabbed at her eyes. Shadow wiped the tears off her cheeks with his hand gently and waited for her to calm down patiently.

"I'm sorry, this is exactly why I learned Martial Arts last year, and then all of that training just goes to waste because of my anxiety issues." She sighed. "Thank you for helping me. We met yesterday before Orientation, didn't we?"

"It was my pleasure to help, and yes I do believe we did meet yesterday. I'm afraid your name escapes me, Miss. I was more concentrated on other things at that moment." Shadow said. "So let's start over. I'm Shadow."

"Melody." She said. She sniffed again. "Thanks for helping me. That happens every time I sing in public, but I usually have my older brother with me to keep the boys at bay. Unfortunately he's still at home and I'm here all alone."

"So are most of the other freshmen, Melody." Shadow said, standing as well. "Think nothing of it, you needed help, and I gave it because I could."

"That's more than a lot of people have done for me before, Shadow." Melody said gratefully. She straightened and raised her chin a little. "We should go back to the lobby."

"So… why did you break down?" Shadow asked as they started down the hallway. Melody slowed a little at his question and didn't answer him right away. "Melody?"

"It's not something I like to share with strangers or acquaintances…" Melody said, looking down at the floor and rubbing her arm anxiously. "It's very personal."

"I understand. I have a few secrets like that too. If you don't want my prying, then I won't." Shadow gave a half-shrug and picked up Melody's fallen backpack for her. She took it gratefully and slung it back onto her shoulder. They both looked up at the ceiling as the bell rang loudly. "Where you headed?"

"Private classrooms for instrument lessons." Melody said. She could feel her day getting better from just talking to Shadow. A smile grew on her face. They entered the main lobby and wormed their way around the people talking and laughing and standing around. "I'm in there for the next hour before I have math, then I have lunch hour, science, English, and then two art classes. Then I'm back in my dorm for an hour or so of homework."

"I was just headed there too, actually. We may have English together. Who's your teacher?" Shadow asked. Shadow spotted the sign for the elevators and started towards it. Melody followed his lead.

"Mrs. Henderson." Melody answered. Shadow glanced back at her with a smile.

"Yup, we have English together." Shadow said small nod. Melody followed him down the short hallway to the elevators. "What kind of Art classes do you have?"

"Painting and drawing." Melody answered. Shadow pressed the button for the elevator.

"What a coincidence, I'm in drawing and pottery." Shadow said. They both stepped back from the metal doors as they waited. "That means we're both in Music 'n Dance and Visual arts."

"I have all my dance classes next year." Melody said as they stopped in front of the elevator. Shadow pressed the down button and it glowed green. "What about you?"

"I have one dance class third tri, but all my other dance classes are next year as well. Maybe we'll share a couple of those classes as well." Shadow said. He watched her own small smile grow larger.

"Maybe. What dance class do you have?" She asked. She sounded so much better than a few minutes ago. He stuffed his hands into his pockets casually. She grabbed the shoulder straps of her backpack.

"Oh um… I think it was ballroom dancing. I'd have to check my schedule to make sure." Shadow answered as the elevator dinged and opened. They entered the elevator and Melody tensed just the slightest as the door closed. Shadow pretended not to notice.

"Ballroom? Seriously? I've never heard of a freshman taking that class before." Melody said, trying to hide a smile. Shadow just smiled a little sheepishly and pressed the button for the floor below them. He readjusted his backpack, which was slung over one shoulder.

"Yep, seriously. My cousin told me sign up for it. I'm closer with her than anyone in the world so of course I couldn't turn her down." Shadow explained, rubbing the back of his head. "Do you have plans for lunch?"

"No, but I'm not available for dating right now. I'm not ready." Melody said surely, raising her head just the slightest. Shadow smiled. Now that she was feeling better Shadow saw strength in her eyes he hadn't noticed before.

"That's perfectly fine." Shadow agreed with a nod. "I was going to invite you to join me and my friends for ice-cream in town."

"Oh well in that case I would enjoy joining you and your friends. I'm going to guess they're all guys?"

"Yeah…" Shadow nodded with a small laugh. Then the elevator doors opened and they exited the contraption, heading down another hallway.

"Hey, I'm fine with that. I've got an older brother so I know how to deal with guys. Except those boys who tried to…hurt me." Melody said, pausing for a moment to find the right word. "How did you take them all down that fast? I've never seen anyone move that fast before, or anyone as good at fighting."

"Um… experience and...I'm…uh…" Shadow bit his lip as he looked for the right word to explain his Chaos Energy enhanced physical skills. He gave up and just shrugged. "I can't think of anything to explain the speed and strength so I'm just going to say it's not something that should be said aloud in public like this." He gestured around them to the bustling halls.

"Oh, okay. I get it, some of those personal secrets we mentioned earlier." Melody said, stopping outside one of the private classroom doors. "Well this is my stop. Thanks for the lunch invite and the rescue and walking me down here."

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Melody. You're welcome. My friends and I are meeting by the school gates to go into town for lunch. See you there?"

"Definitely." Melody smiled. She opened the classroom door. "See you later, Shadow."

The door closed behind her before Shadow could say goodbye. He just shrugged and headed down the hallway to his own private classroom. It hit him that he had forgotten to ask her what instruments she played. He entered his classroom, finding all of his instruments there and waiting for him neatly right where he had placed them yesterday.

He sighed in relief and went over to his violin case, making sure the instrument had really not been touched. He hated leaving his instruments here overnight, but they weren't allowed in the dorms because the administrators were afraid the kids would practice in their dorms and disturb other students. He took the instrument to one of the two chairs in the room and sat down with it.

He pulled his lanyard out from under his shirt, from which all of his keys hung, and found the key to his violin case. He unlocked the case and opened it, revealing the dark blue velvet the instrument sat in, and the dark wood of the instrument itself, which was painted black and silver. The instrument and the matching bow were taken out and prepped while Shadow waited for his instructor.

He sat there with the prepped instrument for a while, still waiting, until he got bored and put the violin in place under his chin. He started playing a soft tune to entertain himself and soon lost himself to the music. He started on another song as he barely registered his teacher bustling into the room, stopping on a dime, and then slowly moving to the other chair in the room. Shadow kept his eyes gently closed and heard his teacher shuffle slightly in the plastic chair.

As soon as the song ended, Shadow lowered his instrument, opened his eyes, and looked up at his teacher. He was surprised to see the blue jay from the orientation performance sitting there with a lesson book in her hands. Her wings were gently folded behind her and she smiled at him. She had very old-looking eyes for her young age.

"Sorry I'm so late, Shadow; I got preoccupied with a friend of mine who was having issues with his depression again. I hope you'll excuse my actions."

"I see no reason to excuse you." Shadow said. "I don't see anything you've done wrong. My mother has depression so I understand what it's like trying to help people with that problem when they're going through a down phase." Shadow said with a nod. The bird's smile grew and she held out her hand.

"I'm Ms. Ryda. I take it your surprised to find out of the orientation performers is your personal instructor?"

"Yeah I am, sort of." Shadow answered, shaking her hand.

"Well, I personally chose to be your instructor because I am well-versed in every single one of the instruments you are learning to play. Although, after hearing you play your violin I can say that I am the one who is surprised here. You're almost as skilled as I am with that instrument. In addition I also play Clarinet, percussion, and I know how to conduct both choir and band music."

"That explains everything." Shadow said with a small smile. "And thank you for the compliment."

"How long have you been learning to play the violin?" she asked, opening her notebook and clicking the button on her mechanical pencil.

"Since I was ten so about four years now. I've been playing piano for three, acoustic guitar for two, and electric guitar for two." Shadow answered. The teacher jotted down a few notes and looked up at him once more.

"What is your home situation like right now?"

"Happy." Shadow answered. "I've got a little brother and an adopted mother who's not married, but I'm also close with my grandfather and my cousin."

"So you've got a happy little family at home. That's good to hear. You sound like your well learned with violin and piano so we're going to focus on Acoustic guitar for a the next few weeks, but I want you to take time every other day or so to come down here and practice on your other instruments as well."

"Of course, I play every day at home, so it'd only be natural for me to do so here." Shadow nodded. "Besides, I worry about my instruments being here overnight. I'm going to want to check on them every day or so."

"You've got key-locked cases and these doors are electronically locked every night after school hours end. I think your instruments will be safe here. I know mine are."

"If you say so…" Shadow said warily. He put his violin away in its case and put it back where it belonged on his shelf. He opened his guitar case and took out the lighter colored acoustic guitar that was inside. He sat down with it. The teacher handed him her lesson book and opened it to one of the pages. He put it on the music stand in front of him.

"I want you to play me… that one." The teacher pointed to the song on the page with her pencil. Shadow looked at the tune for a moment before nodding and starting to play. Shadow looked at the tune for a moment before nodding and starting to play.

_(End Chapter Six)_

_**XXXXXXX**_

_AN: The title is from Feel Again, by One Republic. Really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please tell if there are any mistakes, or if you have ideas for the story, or if you think I could have done something better. I love getting feedback because it helps me grow as a writer and an artist. This Chapter's shout outs go to __VGCats-Rocks__, __Phantomask__, __Nate the Werehog__, and __DeLuna The Cat__. They've contributed the most recent favs. I also want to personally thank __Everlasting Imortal Wolfy__, __wasteoftime2.0__(whoever you may be, my anonymous reviewer), __Sadiethehybrid__, __T-Striker__, and __Purrfect Chaos Ver.2.1.3975__. You guys reviewed most recently and most of you have stuck with this story this long. I'm very, very glad you're enjoying my writing. I also want to thank __Death the Hedgewolf__ for PMing my about my story. That's as good a review as any, pal. Thanks so much guys for reading this. I don't think I could have continued to update this story without your continued support. Just want you to know you're the main things keeping this story rolling right now. :D _

_Up Next: Lunch! Well… dessert for lunch, but whatever. Everybody loves Ice-Cream! Oh wait… oops. Looks like even __**he**__ can have stupid moments…. Ouch. Oh would you look at that! We've got a couple guest stars in the next chapter! They're not supposed to show up until EAHS Year 3! Ooo, more info on Silver's life! Til next time, folks!_

_~Silvershadow145_

_PS: I've posted some fanart and stuff for EAHS, go check it out on my Deviantart page. I've said my dA username several times already, but I'll say it again just in case. It's Sockmonkey145 on dA. Thanks everyone!_


	7. It's Dark Inside

_**AN: HE-EY! Sorry for taking so much time in between chapters. I'm trying to write more of the story and edit these chapters at the same time, while investing in other little writing projects that I may or may not post online. They're just for experience and practice and stuffs. I've discovered that I'm better at writing Romance than action and adventure, so I'm trying to practice with the adventure stuff. They'll be quite a bit off action in the future of this story so… Yeah. Anyways, here are this chapter's Shout Outs:**_

_**To **__**PurrfectChaos Ver.2.1.3975**__**: (Nice username by the name. Lots of numbers.) Thanks for another nice review and I'm REALLY sorry about taking so long with posting. Things come up all the time and school is getting busier now that I'm taking an art class. Thanks for sticking with the story. It's a real boost in confidence for me. :)**_

_**To **__**Immortal Wolfy**__**: Sorry if Violet's not in this chapter. She'll be in there soon I promise. Thanks for letting me use her. And thanks for another review. They're always helpful in one way or another.**_

_**To **__**Darkness**__**: I'm really glad you like my story! Thanks for the tip. I already had that in mind. I did a lot of planning for this story before I even started writing it, so I like to think I'm prepared, but tips are very much welcome. I'd LIKE to take your character in, but seeing as how your character looks like Shadow and shares his Chaos abilities, which are supposed to be one-of-a-kind in the story, I'm going to have to turn you down. If you have another OC who's not like the Sega Characters I'd gladly accept them into the story. Putting your character in the story would mess things up and make readers ask questions I don't have answers to. My biggest apologies, I have nothing against the character or you, but I have responsibilities to my faithful readers to make this story good and I promised myself I'd work my hardest on it. Once again, I am very much sorry. Thanks for the review though!**_

_**To these people for faving: **__**VGCats-Rocks**__**, **__**Phantomask**__**, **__**Nate the Werehog**__**, and **__**DeLuna The Cat**__**. You people are amazing. Thanks for faving my story. I've said this in previous Author's Notes, but it means a lot to me when I see people enjoy my story. Thanks SO much! :D**_

_**And lastly to my newest Story Followers: **__**VGCats-Rocks**__**, **__**Phantomask**__**, **__**DeLuna The Cat**__** (fav AND Follow? Wow! Thanks you three!), **__**OptimisticQueenRandom**__**, and **__**Biod Nomxy**__**. Thanks you guys. I'm glad to see you're interested in my story enough to follow it. You guys make me so excited to update 'cause I'll know you'll be reading it! I just feel so special right now to have people following my story. It's nice to know people are reading it.**_

_**(Sorry, lots of me talking I know.)**_

_**Anyway, you guys know the drill.**_

_**Read, Review, and Enjoy!**_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter Seven: It's Dark Inside_

"Shadow, where is she? I thought you said she was meeting us here." Sonic groaned as he looked at his watch again. Silver glanced at Sonic's watch and then rolled his eyes. Tails started walking on the edge of the fountain with his arms out to his sides for balance.

"Sonic it's only been two minutes since _we_ got here, give the girl some time, sheesh. You're so impatient." Silver said. He turned to aim his camera at the architecture fountain to the south. He snapped a couple pictures. The lighting today was perfect for the pictures he was taking. It was sunny and warm so Silver had the sleeves of his shirt pushed up to his elbows. Tails lost his balance and jumped off the fountain before he fell into it.

"I can't help it. I'm used to living life in the fast lane." Sonic shrugged. He folded his arms behind his head. Silver just shook his head and took a picture of the music building. He made sure the building's glass atrium dome at the center was in the picture.

"Well maybe you should slow down for once because you're missing out on a lot of good things in this world." Shadow said. He saw something moving in the corner of his eye and turned to see Melody walking towards them. She was wearing the same outfit as before, a loose dark blue top with jeans, but she had changed her gloves, given her make up a touch up, and had a purse slung over one shoulder and resting on the opposite hip instead of a backpack.

Shadow turned back to Sonic and smirked. Sonic rolled his eyes and tapped his foot. Shadow growled at him and bopped him on the head. Silver turned and snapped a picture of the hit just as it happened. Neither of the squabbling hedgehogs noticed, but Knuckles gave a short laugh. Silver turned quickly and got a picture of the laugh. Tails used his namesakes to fly up to look at Melody. He was too short to see her through the crowd.

"What was that for?!" Sonic exclaimed indignantly. Shadow rolled his eyes and sat back down on the fountain. Silver backed up a couple steps and took a picture of everyone. Knuckles grinned for the camera, Shadow glanced at it with a bored expression, Sonic didn't even notice, and Tails stuck up bunny ears behind Sonic's head. Silver chuckled a little at Sonic's ignorance of the camera and his friends.

"Because if you make it look like you're annoyed that she's a little late she's going to feel self-conscious and guilty. She's not that late so lay off." Shadow said. Silver turned and took a picture of Melody walking through the crowd, looking around at everything. He'd made it so she was the focus of the picture, but everyone else was blurred slightly. Tails flew over to look at the pictures.

"Fine, sheesh, sometimes I wonder if you wait for me to make a little mistake so you can hit me." Sonic said, glaring a little at Shadow. He let his arms fall back down to his sides. Silver took more pictures of the scene, trying to hold back his laughter. Knuckles came to stand next to him and watch the pictures he was taking.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." Shadow smirked. Sonic rolled his eyes and looked at Melody once more. Silver turned and got another picture of the hedge-fox, but Tails cut in with a peace sign. Silver glared at the fox as Tails laughed.

"She's pretty." Sonic commented. He put a hand to his chin in thought. Tails put up another set of bunny ears. Silver caught the hedgehog's expression and Knuckles snickered.

"Shut up." Shadow retorted. Silver caught the laughed a little as Melody finally reached them. Silver turned and got a picture of her with the boys. Melody noticed the camera just in time and smiled for it, no one else in the picture noticed except Tails, who made a weird face.

"Hi, sorry I'm a little late." Melody excused herself. She brushed one of the locks of quills that framed her face back over her shoulder. Silver got a picture of the motion just in time. "My roommate held me back with question after question about why I was eating with you and where we were going and on and on."

"It's okay. We only just got here a few minutes ago as well." Shadow said. He pointed a thumb behind him at the light gray hedgehog. Silver caught another picture of the scene. "Silver held us back."

"Hey! I did not! It was Sonic who held us back!" Silver protested, lowering his camera for a moment. Melody giggled. Knuckles suddenly grabbed the camera from Silver's hands and took a picture of Silver's reaction to Shadow's accusation. Silver snatched his camera back with a glare.

"Nuh-uh!" Sonic contradicted, putting his hands on his hips. Shadow mimicked the pose a little too dramatically. Silver hid his snicker behind the camera as he took another picture. "You were late coming out of class!"

"I was talking with my teacher about the year-long project we had received! You were flirting with a bunch of improperly dressed girls!" Silver retorted. Melody's giggles turned into laughter. Silver caught it in another picture.

"Wha-at?" Sonic whined. Silver took yet another picture. "Why are you laughing? It's not funny! They were very pretty girls!"

Melody laughed a little harder. Silver was really starting to like this girl. She was very photogenic and she laughed so nicely. A memory of an old friend danced into Silver's mind and he smiled. Tails managed to troll another picture with as he jumped into the frame and shook his hand next to his ear in the 'call me' sign. Silver glared at him again, but Tails only laughed.

"You sound like such an average high school boy!" Melody exclaimed through her laughter. Shadow was trying not to laugh as well and Tails was hiding his smile. Silver put his hands on his hips and smiled triumphantly. Knuckles once again grabbed the camera and took a picture of everyone.

"Thanks for coming, Melody." Shadow said. Silver grabbed his camera back and accidently pressed the record button without noticing. He hung the camera around his neck. He didn't bother to turn it off because he thought it would turn off on its own. "These are my friends, Silver, Sonic, and Miles."

"It's _Tails_." Sonic corrected. Silver came back over to the group. "Why do I have to keep correcting you? He doesn't like Miles, so he goes by Tails."

"I can see why." Melody said. Tails' namesakes twitched behind him as he watched his brother and Shadow fight over his name. Silver put his arm on Knuckles shoulder and leaned on the red mobian, crossing one ankle over the other. He watched with an amused smirk.

"And I answer you every time, Faker. I can call people what I want to. Besides, he's made no protest against it. If he did I would call him Tails, but he doesn't. So Miles will work just fine for me." Shadow said. Sonic facepalmed with a small groan. "Aren't you the one who was being all impatient earlier? Get off your butt, Faker, and let's go."

Sonic rolled his eyes and Melody stifled another giggle. Shadow liked seeing Melody smiling and laughing after her sudden breakdown earlier. He wanted to see her happy more, but it was still bugging him that he didn't know what was bothering her so much. He sighed inwardly and followed his friends out the school gates. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails got into a conversation about music so Shadow dropped back and walked with Melody.

"I forgot to ask you what instruments you played earlier." Shadow said. Melody looked at him for a moment and then looked ahead again. Melody was the only one to noticed Silver walking backwards to watch them.

"Acoustic guitar and piano." Melody answered. She was a little puzzled by the flashing red light on Silver's camera. "What do you play?"

"I play the same instruments you do, but I also play violin and electric guitar." Shadow said. Silver flipped around and dropped back to join them. "I'm better with violin and piano though. I've been studying them longer."

"It's the same with me and singing. I've been singing far longer than I've been playing any instruments." Melody said. She clasped her hands behind her back. Silver took a picture of her, still not noticing that his camera was recording the scene. It had the function to take pictures while it was recording. "I have this dream of becoming a professional and being a big singer like Kelly Clarkson or Adele."

"That's a high bar to reach for, but after hearing you sing earlier in class I'm sure you can do it." Shadow commented. Melody listened to his answers attentively. Silver kept taking pictures of the two. "My goal is to simply hone my talents as much as I possibly can and let the rest of my life just work itself out. If the opportunity to become famous arises, I'll take it, but it's not exactly what I'm reaching for. Maybe we'll meet again after high school as celebrities."

"Maybe." Melody said with a playful smirk on her lips. Silver made sure to get a picture of the look. "So, what's the name of this ice-cream place we're going to?"

"I don't know." Shadow answered. He readjusted his jacket and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. Silver got a solo picture of him. "We saw it the other night when we were out here to eat dinner at this little restaurant in town. I think I saw you there actually."

"Yup, my roommate and I ate out there last night as well. What a coincidence." Melody said. "We just keep running into each other, don't we?"

"Yes well, now we can run into each other on purpose. Do you have plans for dinner?" Shadow asked. He noticed the blinking light on Silver's camera as well, but ignored it thinking the near-white hedgehog knew what he was doing. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles dropped back at the question.

"Yeah, I'm eating in the cafeteria with my friends." Melody answered. She looked at the blinking light on Silver's camera again, but this time she thought she knew what it was. "You could join us if you want. Kristin has heard a lot about you guys. She really wants to meet you. I think she has a little crush on you."

"I'm sure a lot of girls back home have crushes on Shads, as well." Sonic smirked, elbowing the black hedgehog with a wink. Shadow rolled his eyes as Melody giggled. Silver started taking pictures of his friends again. He jogged forward and took a picture of all of them standing in a line like that walking down the sidewalk.

"No, at home only one girl my age even knows my name and she's my cousin." Shadow corrected, not taking his eyes off Silver and Tails. Sonic's smirk fell into curiosity and he put his hands on his hips.

"Really? What about school? A guy like you must attract a lot of attention there." Sonic asked. Shadow shook his head. Sonic's eyes widened. Knuckles and Tails noticed the light on Silver's camera finally. Silver just kept taking pictures of the hedgehogs.

"I didn't go to public school back home. I was homeschooled." Shadow answered. Sonic's arms fell limp. Silver caught it on camera.

"Homeschoo- oh you've got to be kidding me! Don't you have _any_ social life outside of your family?!" Sonic exclaimed. Melody giggled. Tails and Knuckles snickered when they noticed that Silver didn't know his camera was recording.

"Yes I do, most of my hometown knows who I am, except for my peers. They're not worth my time." Shadow answered dryly.

"Not…worth…your time…" Sonic said slowly. Tails and Knuckles looked a little puzzled at Shadow's answer too. "How?!"

"I refuse to waste time trying to befriend humans who do not treat me as their equal. I was the only Mobian, besides my brother, living in each of the towns I've lived in and the humans always seem to think they're better than me." Shadow retorted sharply, glaring at Sonic. Melody grabbed Silver's arm and pulled him ahead. She pointed to the little red light on the camera. "They treated me as if I was a feral animal or dirt under their shoes. That's why I switched to homeschooling in the first place. It's been like that ever since my mother adopted my brother and I."

"Oh…" Sonic bit his lip and fell silent.

"Crap!" Silver exclaimed when he figured out the camera was recording. He started trying to find a way to turn off the recording feed. But then he stopped and aimed the camera at his friends, recording the conversation. Melody shrugged and fell back to walk next to Shadow once more.

"I would appreciate it if you would not jump to conclusions about me, blue boy. There is more to me than what I let show, or what I tell you. And by the way, before you say something stupid, Melody does not yet know about my abilities yet."

"You didn't tell her?" He asked. Melody's gaze switched between the two of the repeatedly. Knuckles looked confused too.

"Nope. It requires more privacy than the lobby of the Music Hall." Shadow answered. Sonic half-shrugged casually.

"Oh, right I guess it does. Maybe you could tell her today. She's here isn't she?"

"This is _more_ public than the Music Hall, idiot." Shadow snapped. Melody giggled again.

"You two are very entertaining." She said. The two boys looked at her guiltily. "So how do you all know each other?"

"The faker's my roommate, Miles is his adopted brother, Silver I ran into yesterday morning." Shadow explained curtly.

"Literally…" Silver said, rubbing the back of his head. Melody giggled again.

"So, you really don't mind being the only girl?" Sonic asked. Melody shook her head and looked at him.

"I have an older brother at home and in a way, each of you reminds me of some aspect of him. He's childish like Sonic, protective like Shadow, silly and awkward like Silver, and at the same time he's as quiet as Tails." Melody explained.

"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed. Shadow and Knuckles laughed.

"You are very childish." Shadow agreed. Silver snickered.

"I'm not quiet." Tails said with a casual shrug. "I just have nothing to say."

"Whatever the reason you still remind me of him." Melody shrugged. "It…uh…really helps with the homesickness."

"I bet." Shadow said. "But you're closer to home than most of us. Silver's the only exception. He lives in town."

"Lucky him." Melody sighed. "Sonic, where do you come from?"

"I live in Station Square, but my biological sibs and I were born in Green Hill." Sonic said.

"You have more siblings?" Shadow asked, looking a little disturbed. "I pity them." He added under his breath. Silver's camera managed to pick up the words.

"Just two more." Sonic said, holding up two fingers. "Manic and Sonia. They're both younger than me. Tails is the same age as Sonia, but he's super smart so he came with me to be a freshman a year early."

"Really? Tails you're that young? I thought you were older than Sonic." Melody said. Silver and Knuckles started laughing at Sonic's indignant expression.

"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed again.

"No, I'm not older, but I am smarter." The fox said.

"And more mature." Shadow added with a growing smirk.

"_Hey_!" Sonic exclaimed again. Melody and Knuckles snickered.

"Meh, can't be right every time." she shrugged. "So what Art categories are you guys studying?"

"I'm in Performing Arts and Cooking." Silver said.

"Cooking and Architecture." Tails answered.

"I'm in the same departments as Tails." Knuckles shrugged casually.

"MD and Writing." Sonic grinned. Silver finally turned off the recording, but he didn't throw away the video. He started taking pictures of the city.

"You're in writing?" Shadow asked.

"Well sure, why not?" Sonic asked seriously. "I enjoy writing. I've always wanted to go on real adventures, but so far I've only been able to write about them."

"Sonic has been writing since he was in fourth grade, Shadow. He's really good at it. Most of it is Adventure and Fantasy, but he'll write a short romance here and there. I've seen him put science fiction elements into his stories too." Tails smiled.

"Romance?" Shadow asked, turning to raise an eyebrow at Sonic, who was blushing madly.

"Wha-at?" He whined. "I write horror and comedy too, you know." Shadow just shrugged and smirked. Tails and Knuckles snickered while Melody laughed. "Shadow talks in his sleep!" Sonic exclaimed, trying to even the score of embarrassment.

"Hey!" Shadow growled, his cheeks turning red as he punched Sonic in the arm.

"Hey nothin! You revealed one of my secrets!"

"But that was Miles!"

"You asked him!"

"So let's make it even all around." Melody said. "Besides, there are worse things than talking in your sleep. My brother says I _sing_ in my sleep. He once recorded me doing it and used it as blackmail to get me to do his homework for a week until I took his camera away."

The boys all laughed and Sonic put a hand on Melody's shoulder.

"Okay, that's good!" He laughed. "Knuckles, your turn."

"Hmm… embarrassing things…." Knuckles said, thinking about it. "I've been knocked out by a coconut throwing monkey before. My head actually split the coconut open."

"When were you around monkeys?" Tails asked. Silver's imagination played the scene of Knuckles and the coconut throwing money in his head. He laughed at his own imagination.

"I live on an island down south. It's got plenty of monkeys and a lot of coconuts." Knuckles answered.

"You must have a really hard head." Silver commented with a smirk. Knuckles raised a fist and Silver backed off. Everyone looked at Tails for him to go next.

"There's plenty of embarrassing things I could tell you about Sonic, but I can't remember many of mine." Tails shrugged. "I do remember the time this little girl fell asleep using my tails as a blanket and pillow while I was reading though."

"Aww, that's really cute." Melody cooed. Tails laughed shyly and rubbed the back of his head. Then they all turned to the only one left, Silver. Silver tried to ignore that they were looking at him for a while by taking more pictures of the city.

"What about you, Silver?" Shadow finally asked. Silver dropped his camera around his neck once more and looked at his friends. The gig was up.

"Umm uhh I…" He trailed off, his face going bright red. They all looked at him expectantly. He shut his eyes tightly. "I…I memorized Romeo and Juliet."

"All of it?!" Melody exclaimed. Silver nodded shyly. Sonic burst out laughing, but Melody smacked him.

"What was that for?" He asked, holding his cheek. She really hadn't hit him that hard. Knuckles and Shadow doubled over in laughter.

"It's not funny!" Melody scolded. "It's cool! Do you _know_ how weird some of those words are in Romeo and Juliet? I think it's really amazing that he managed to memorize all of it!"

"Shadow!" Sonic whined, turning to the black hedgehog. "She's mean!"

Shadow was too busy laughing at Sonic. Knuckles was having a hard time trying to stay standing.

"You just got slapped by a girl!" Knuckles laughed. Melody turned on her heel and slapped the laughing mobians too.

"That was sexist!" she exclaimed.

Tails was doubled over laughing at the three. Silver had a hand over his mouth, hiding his snickers. Shadow blinked in surprise and put a hand to his own cheek. Knuckles growled and rubbed his cheek roughly, trying to rid his muzzle of the embarrassing pink blush. He couldn't believe he'd let a girl slap him.

"That was kinda random." Silver said, his snickers dying out.

"Not really, I do that to my brother all the time at home." Melody smiled and shrugged innocently. She patted Shadow's cheek lightly and grinned at him. He didn't know why but he felt his cheeks heat up just a little. Then she turned and kept walking down the street. The boys shared confused glances, but followed her anyways.

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Well this is it." Sonic said, opening the door for the other guys and Melody. They went into the little ice-cream parlor to find it nearly empty. "Let's go order. Then we can go eat outside."

The group of teens went up to the register and ordered their ice-cream. Melody got Cool Mint with gummy bears. Sonic got Banana Blast with chocolate chips. Tails got Very Vanilla with crumbled candy cane pieces. Silver got Cookies 'n Cream with sprinkles. Knuckles got Chocolate with whipped cream. Shadow got Cookie Dough with whipped cream and a candy cherry. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Silver went outside with Melody and Shadow trailing behind them. The four boys sat down at a four person table. Melody and Shadow stopped.

"Are we being excluded?" Shadow asked the hedge-fox.

"I don't know, but oh well. Let's just go sit over there." Melody said, pointing to a two person table with a small umbrella over it. Shadow shrugged and followed her over to the table. They sat down and started on their ice-cream. Neither of them noticed Sonic watching them with a sly grin.

"So…" Shadow started, trying to think of something, anything, to say to her. "Your brother, tell me more about him."

"Well he's more fox than I am, he's black and acid green, has eyes the same color as your cherry, his quills grow in bangs on his forehead and the regular six bunches that curve back like Sonic, except the three in the middle of his head are a little longer. His name is Ashiri, but everyone just calls him Ash."

"He has red eyes? That's rare." Shadow commented.

"I know. That's kinda part of why I broke down earlier. I saw you and suddenly my brother was there picking me up and brushing me off and making sure I was okay again. Then I realized he wasn't and it was a stranger instead." Melody explained. "I've never seen him once look at me in anger. He's the best brother ever."

"I can imagine. I have a younger brother and he's a pain, but he's also my brother so I feel responsible for him. Okay, so the questions are killing me inside. I really want to know what's upsetting you so much, but you refuse to tell me."

"I have questions about you as well. You've never mentioned a single word of life before your adoption and you keep hinting at these 'Personal Abilities'. You're making me really curious, Shadow." Melody agreed, putting air quotes around 'Personal Abilities'.

"So let's make a deal. I'll tell you one of my secrets, if you spill one of yours. A secret for a secret." Shadow said, holding out his hand.

"I don't know… It's really, really hard to talk about things with anyone other than my brother. And I barely know you right now. I've been through similar experiences in the past and they all left me broken hearted. I don't trust as easily anymore." Melody said, putting another bite of her ice-cream in her mouth.

"So what will it take to get you to trust me?" He asked. "I don't like seeing anyone down in the dumps, especially a nice girl like you."

"I've heard it all before, Shadow." Melody said, glaring at the table. "It's just empty words to me now. I've heard every pick-up line and every sweet word out there. I promised myself I would never tell my secrets to anyone other than my brother. I don't trust anyone else."

"You trusted me enough to let me take you out for ice-cream with a bunch of high-school guys." Shadow protested.

"That's because you helped me with a bunch of idiot boys trying to hurt me. I know you won't hurt me in that way, but there are a lot of ways you can hurt someone, Shadow. Especially someone as fragile as me." Melody replied.

"I don't see anything fragile in you, Melody." Shadow said. Melody's glare turned from the table to sear holes into his eyes.

"Well that's because I hide it, from everyone. You only saw a glimpse when I broke down earlier. Don't try to push me into telling you with sugar words and fake concern. I already told you, I've heard it all before."

"I'm not trying lying, Melody. I really do see strength in you. You've got the strength to try and push your past into the past. You've got enough strength to stand up to a kid who took down seven older boys in two minutes. I really look up to that. You're stronger than you let yourself believe, Mel."

"Don't call me that!" She snapped, attracting the attention of Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Silver. She brandished her spoon at Shadow defensively. The boys looked over at Shadow and Melody. "No one is allowed to call me that, got it? _He_ called me that. _He _was a nightmare I'd rather leave in the past. I don't want to talk about it because I'm trying to forget it ever happened! Thanks for the ice-cream, but I need to get back to school now, Shadow." Melody stood up, picked up her ice-cream, and started to walk away. Shadow snagged her wrist as she passed him.

"Melody, wait. Please I have secrets like that too. I'm willing to trust you with them, why won't you trust me?"

"Because you're just another stupid boy!" Melody yelled. Shadow, shocked, let go of her wrist and watched with wide eyes as she threw her ice-cream in the trash and ran off down the street. He stood and walked over to Sonic's table with his own ice-cream in his hands.

"Should I go after her?" He asked.

"No. I think that'd make things worse." Silver said. "Trust me I speak from experience. I have four sisters at home."

"Think she'll ever talk to me again?" He asked.

"Maybe, give her space for a day or two before you try to talk to her again." Tails advised. "She didn't look too happy when she ran off. What did you do?"

"I tried to get her to trust me." Shadow said, shaking his head a little. "Something in her past is haunting her and I just wanted to know what it was. I want to help her but she's convinced I'm lying to her to convince her to be my girlfriend. I just want to help her…"

"Mmm… judging by what she yelled at you, and how she reacted and what she was thought you were doing… I'm going to guess that she's had a relationship or two in the past that ended horribly." Tails said. "She doesn't trust guys because they've hurt her."

Shadow sighed and stole a chair from one of the other tables. He sat down, folded his arms on the table, and put his face in them.

"Why am I so stupid?" He asked.

"You're not stupid, you just didn't know she'd react like that." Sonic said.

"But I kept pushing her after she said no. I know better. My mom and my cousin always get angry when I push them past the word 'no'."

"Yeah, that was pretty stupid." Silver said. "But hey, we all make mistakes. Besides, you were only trying to help her. She misinterpreted it. Don't try to ask her to spill again, Shadow. If you get close enough to her as a friend I think she'll spill on her own in time."

"I'm going back to the dorms…" Shadow said as he stood up. "See you guys later for dinner. Think we're still eating with her and her friends?"

"Unless she tells you not to, I'm going to guess that we are." Tails said. "See you later Shadow. And don't feel bad, okay? Just keep trying to be her friend."

Shadow nodded, picked up his ice-cream, and started walking back to school, eating his ice-cream on the way there. He had just thrown away his empty paper ice-cream bowl when something caught his eye. There was a little girl sitting on a bench nearby. She had a small blue doll-like creature in her hands and was looking at it with tears in her eyes. She was talking to the creature and the creature was 'talking' back. Shadow couldn't hear what they were saying from where he was, but both the creature and the girl were obviously upset about something. The girl, a rabbit that couldn't have been older than six or seven, suddenly burst into tears, hugging the creature close.

_(End of Chapter Seven)_

_**NA: Thanks for reading! This chapter's title came from the song Demons, by Imagine Dragons. I love that song to death. I almost used the quote "The Lights Fade Out" for this chapter instead, but I thought this fit better and would be more recognizable.**_

_**Next Up we get to meet the kindly Miss Vanilla and her adorable daughter, Cream. And Cheese of course, who is never very far from Cream. We also learn a little more about Silver and Shadow. YAY! XD Sonic is apparently easily surprised when it comes to facts about his new friends… CALM DOWN SONIC! It's really not that big of a deal. Sheesh.**_

_**Whatever.**_

_**Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review if you have any comments. I love hearing from all my readers! If none of you noticed, I've posted a map of the school on my DeviantArt Page. My username is Sockmonkey145 and the titles of the map, which I split into two parts, is "Emerald High Map Part 1" and "Emerald High Map Part 2" **_

_**Again, Thanks for reading if you've made it this far! Hope to see you next time!**_


	8. Between the Lines of Fear

_**AN: Heey Guys! Sorry it's been so long since my last update. Summer hit and I got reeaallly lazy, sleeping in until noon and staying up watching movies until like two in the morning. I promise to get serious now and really buckle down on this story. Chapter Eight's title comes from the song **__**How to Save a Life**__**, by The Fray. This Chapter is dedicated to my friend **__**purpleyelloweyedhedgehog**__**.**_

_**Shout Outs:**_

_**To **__**purpleyelloweyedhedgehog: **__**I really hope you get to read the rest of my story someday. I know I said that in our PM, but I mean it. And if by some chance you are reading this in this future Just know that I'm dedicating this chapter to you because you were so supportive and it was really nice having a fan for my story and to just have someone who considered me their favorite author when I've met such better authors on this site already. I hope you're doing okay and I hope you're not leaving FF forever. Thanks for the good times, PYEHedgehog.**_

_**To **__**Darkness**__**: I'm really sorry, honestly I am, but I'm really just looking for OC's to be teachers and staff for the high school. Dagger sounds really cool, but he sounds like he'd fit better in an action/adventure OC story than my high school fic. I hope you can understand.**_

_**And a special thank you to **__**Hazel the Rabbit**__** and **__**Springflowerangel**__** for asking me to Beta your stories. It's such a privilege to be asked of something like that. Even if you may never ever see this little shout out, I still think it's worth mentioning somewhere. Thanks a bunch you two!**_

_**Here we go again!**_

_**Read, Review and Enjoy!**_

_**Emerald High School for the Artistically Talented and Musically Gifted  
a Sonic High School Story**_

_**By: Silvershadow145  
Also known as Sockmonkey145 on dA **_

_Chapter Eight: Between the Lines of Fear_

_**Recap: **__There was a little girl sitting on a bench nearby. She had a small blue doll-like creature in her hands and was looking at it with tears in her eyes. She was talking to the creature and the creature was 'talking' back. Shadow couldn't hear what they were saying from where he was, but both the creature and the girl were obviously upset about something. The girl, a rabbit that couldn't have been older than six or seven, suddenly burst into crying, hugging the creature close._

_**XXXXXXX**_

He watched as everybody on the sidewalk turned to look at her but just kept walking. Shadow felt anger start to boil his blood and he glared at the humans just passing her by. He let out a frustrated sigh and walked over to the girl. He sat down on the bench next to her, but stayed silent, trying to think of what he could say. He could feel stares on the back on his head, but ignored them. He leaned over towards the girl and took her hands away from her eyes. She didn't stop crying. The small creature glared at Shadow and rushed towards him, but Shadow brushed the little thing away like an annoying fly.

"Hey, stop wailing like that. You'll hurt your throat and it hurts my ears." He said gruffly, trying to sound concerned but failing at it. The girl paused in her wails and looked at him, tears still seeping from the corners of her eyes. She was wearing a little red-orange dress and sneakers.

"Wh-who a-are you?" She said, her sobs breaking her voice. Shadow sighed and wiped some of the tears away from her eyes.

"I'm Shadow, and you?" He answered, letting go of her wrists. She placed her hands in her lap as her tears started to slow.

"M-my name is C-cream and this is m-my friend. He's a Chao and his n-name is Cheese." She answered his return question. He crossed one leg over the other and made sure to keep eye contact with her. The chao tried to attack Shadow again, but Cream grabbed him and held him in her lap. He tried to wriggle his way to freedom in vain.

"Why are you crying?" He asked as the chao started to calm down, looking concerned. The little girl paused and tears started to well up in her eyes again.

"I can't find my momma!" She cried, latching onto him faster than he could react. He jumped at the suddenly hug, but quickly shook it away and put an awkward hand on her head.

"Hey, don't worry okay. I've got some time before I have to go back to school, want me to help you find her?" He offered, petting the soft fur between her ears comfortingly. She stopped crying and looked up at him, eyes wide and desperate. Cheese brightened up and chirped at Shadow.

"Y-you would do that?" She asked. She sat up and leaned on her hands on the bench. "I asked another man to help me but he pushed me away and called me a dirty animal. I don't understand what he called me. I like taking baths and Momma always says we're not animals, we're Mobians."

"Humans…" Shadow scoffed under his breath. He balled one of his hands into a fist and scowled at the ground with a light growl. "I _hate_ them."

"Mr. Shadow, why do you hate them? My Momma says that we shouldn't hate people for no real reason. She called it discrimination." Cream asked, cementing Shadow to the bench. He looked over at her with a passive look on his face, but his mind was in turmoil. One simple question. Was that really all it took to derail him? One question and his brain had turned into a food processor, spinning and mixing and jumbling his emotions together into a huge mess that could hardly be described as healthy. "Mr. Shadow? Are you okay?"

Shadow hung his head and tightened his fists. He'd started trembling out of pure rage. He had to hold it together. Cream wasn't _him_. Cream was an innocent little girl who'd asked an innocent question. She'd done nothing wrong. There was no point in getting angry at her. He had to calm down. Cream put a hand on his shoulder, but again he didn't respond. The chao floated down in front of his face with a puzzled expression.

"Chao chao?" Cheese chirped in question.

"Mr. Shadow did I say something mean? Are you angry at me?" Cream asked. Shadow took a deep steadying breath and calmed his anger before it started messing with his Chaos Energy. His trembling stopped and he was able to look Cream in the eye without a glare on his face.

"I'm fine, Cream. I do have reasons for hating those pathetic humans, but they're personal and I'd rather not share them." He finally answered her. Cream looked at him for a few more moments before smiling and jumping off the bench.

"That's okay. Momma says that I have to respect other people, even if I don't know them or like them. But I like you, Mr. Shadow. You don't talk to me like I'm a baby." Cream said happily. She grabbed Shadow's hand and pulled him off the bench. "Now hurry up, Mr. Shadow. Momma's gonna get ice-cream without me!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." Shadow gave in, letting the girl pull him into the middle of the sidewalk. The Chao floated just above her shoulder and grabbed the short sleeve of her dress. Cream looked at Cheese as Shadow led them along and gave the blue creature a smile.

"We're going to go find Momma, Cheese, and now we have Mr. Shadow to help us." She said. Her voice was high-pitched in her youth. The Chao chirped at her and smiled too, the little bubble above his head morphing into a small heart.

"Cream, where did you last see your mom?" Shadow asked, tugging on her arm a little to get her attention. Cream looked up at him.

"She was going to take me out for Ice-cream but this huge crowd of fast walking men walked right into us and I got pulled away from Momma when she wasn't looking. She turned a corner and I ran after her but when I turned the corner too she was gone and the sidewalk had lots more people on it. I tried to find her but couldn't so I gave up and went back to the bench." Cream explained, looking a little sad again. Cheese chirped at her and she smiled again, pointing at the very same corner Shadow had turned around only minutes before. "She went behind that corner."

"I think I know which ice-cream parlor your mother went to, Cream." Shadow said. Shadow looked back down at the rabbit. Her chao let go of her shirt sleeve and floated next to her head instead. "I was just there with my friends and this girl I met earlier today. I was headed back to school early because I made the girl mad and she ran off."

"Uh-oh. Did you apologize?" Cream asked. "Momma says you should always apologize when you make someone mad or sad, even if you don't think it's your fault."

"I tried too but she yelled at me and ran off before I could say anything." Shadow answered with a sigh. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the school. "I hope she's all right."

"I do too. You should find her and apologize, Mr. Shadow." Cream said with an innocent smile. "I bet she would like that a lot. I know Momma really likes it when I apologize so she'll probably like it too!"

"I will Cream, thanks." Shadow said. They were headed towards the ice-cream parlor and Shadow spotted his friends still sitting there, chatting. The ice-cream was gone but they were still sitting there, laughing and joking around like they'd known each other for years. Silver spotted Shadow first and waved at him, but then he saw Cream and his look grew puzzled. Shadow went over to them with Cream's hand still encircled in his own.

"Where'd you find the little girl, Shads?" Sonic asked. Now all of them were looking rather confused by her. Cream was looking around before the question was asked, but turned to Sonic when she heard it.

"Mr. Shadow's helping me find Momma. She was gonna take me out for ice-cream but we got separated by the lots and lots of people." She answered. She went back to looking around at the crowds of people, both human and mobian.

"This is Cream. I found her crying on a bench on my way back." Shadow explained, glancing down at the curious rabbit. "I promised to help her."

"Well that's awfully nice of you." Tails commented. Silver pulled out his camera once more and snapped a picture of the little girl with a strange smile, like he was looking at an old friend.

"Cream this is Sonic, Silver, Knuckles, and Tails. They're my friends." Shadow said, gesturing to the four at the table. Cream smiled and waved to them.

"Chao, Chao!" the little blue thing chirped again. It flew at Shadow again, this time catching the hedgehog off guard and bumping into his head. Shadow brushed him away again.

"Cheese, don't be rude. If you wanted to be introduced too you should have just asked." Cream scolded the creature. She turned to the teenagers at the table and pushed Cheese towards them. "This is Cheese. He's my Chao friend."

"Cream!" The five of them looked up as the rabbit's name was called out. An older rabbit in a red and pink dress ran towards them and dropped to her knees, embracing the child tightly.

"Momma!" Cream exclaimed, hugging back with a huge smile. The teenagers watched the happy reunion, each with different expressions. Shadow acted indifferent while Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles smiled brightly and Silver sighed with a small forlorn smile.

"Chao! Chao, Chao! Chao!" Cheese chirped excitedly and buzzed around the rabbits' heads. Cream was still holding Shadow's hand. Shadow had completely forgotten about holding the little girl's hand.

"Momma, Momma, Mr. Shadow helped me find you!" Cream said, taking a step back as her mother stood up. "He and his friends are really nice."

"Thank you, young man, for helping her. I'm sure she must have been in an awful state. I'm Miss Vanilla." The woman introduced herself. Shadow nodded politely.

"She was, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I have a little brother back home about her age." Shadow replied, feeling a little awkward from being praised. Silver's eyes stayed on Miss Vanilla, watching her almost expectantly. Vanilla never noticed him. Sonic was smiling and Knuckles was leaning his chair back with his hands tucked behind his head. Vanilla dug a hand into her pocket.

"Oh really? You must be such a nice older brother to him. Here, a token of my gratitude." The rabbit took Shadow's hand from Cream's and put three five dollar bills in it. She closed his fist around the money. Shadow looked at the bills for a moment with wide eyes before he shook his head and held it back out to her.

"No, I couldn't take your money, Miss Vanilla. I only helped her because the stupid humans wouldn't. And it's not like I had to take care of her for long. She was just around the corner back there." Shadow said in excuse, gesturing towards the corner.

"Keep it, Shadow." Miss Vanilla said, pushing his hand back towards him. "I don't need it and a new high school student like you can use all the money you can get, right?"

"Y-yeah I… I guess so." Shadow said, taken aback by the woman's kindness. Sonic snickered. "Thanks…"

"No, don't thank me. I don't know what I would have done if I never saw my little girl again. She's more precious to me than the world. Maybe I'll see you again, Shadow. I work at the High School, after all." The rabbit said with a laugh.

"Momma can I get Ice-cream now?" Cream asked impatiently, tugging on the skirt of her mom's dress.

"Yes, darling." The rabbit answered, looking down at her. She looked back up at Shadow and smiled. "Thank you, Shadow."

Shadow stayed silent as the two rabbits turned and walked towards the parlor, still a little shocked by what had happened. Cheese hugged the side of his face quickly and hurried to catch up as Cream turned back to him with a smile and wave.

"Bye Mr. Shadow!" She called. "Thank you for helping me!"

Then they were gone. Shadow still just stood there, blinking in shock. Sonic was watching Knuckles. Silver started laughing, drawing the attention of his friends.

"Looks like Shadow just got his first taste of Miss Vanilla's kindness." Silver laughed. Knuckles put all four of his chair legs back on the ground with a thump and looked at Silver. Everyone was puzzled.

"What do you mean?" Tails asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Miss Vanilla is very well-known in this part of town. Besides working as a day-care lady for the teachers and staff at the high-school, she owns and runs a bakery all by herself. She's a single parent too. She's the kindest woman in the whole area and everyone loves her bakery. I should take you there sometime." Silver explained with a smile. However, his smile soon fell and he looked down at his empty ice-cream bowl.

"Why the long face, then?" Sonic asked as Shadow sat down at the table again. Shadow pocketed the money he'd been given. Knuckles leaned his chair back again. Sonic's gaze kept flickering over to Knuckles. Tails shot the blue hedgehog a warning glance.

"My dad used to take me and my siblings there all the time before his accident. I haven't been to that bakery in too long. It's no wonder Miss Vanilla's forgotten about me in all the customers she's had. It's a very popular place."

"What happened to your dad?" Tails asked.

"He uh… he got in a really bad car accident that made front page head-lines two years ago." Silver said, bowing his head a little. Shadow looked away, his face turning into a mask of indifference as memories flashed in his head.

"Two years ago? Gosh I hope you and your family are okay." Sonic said. Tails put a concerned hand on Silver's shoulder. Knuckles had closed his eyes in thought, but his chair was still only standing on two legs.

"We are, sort of. He didn't die, you know. But… he's not around anymore no."

"Not dead, but not around, what happened did he loose his memory and leave you guys to start a new life or something?" Shadow asked, half joking in an attempt to lighten his own mood. He still didn't meet Silver's eyes.

"No. He's been in a coma for two years. My mom barely leaves his side these days and my older sibs and I are left alone to manage life at home. I honestly don't know how my siblings are going to manage without me there. I'll visit on the weekends, sure, but it won't be the same. We had to hire a nanny for the triplets and my three older siblings are either getting ready for college, attending high-school, or working full-time."

"Three older siblings and triplets?" Sonic asked, raising his eyebrow. The change in subject lightened the atmosphere enough to bring Shadow's gaze back to Silver. "How many siblings do you _have_ Silv?"

"A lot." Silver answered with a laugh. Shadow's thoughts were still far from the ice-cream parlor and Silver's family, but he still listened. "Here, I'll name them from oldest to youngest for you, but I doubt you'll remember them all. There's Layla, Micah, and Dylan, then there's me, then it's Dustin, Rachel, and finally the triplets, Robby, Tyler, and Mara."

Sonic counted on his fingers and when he came to a total his eyes widened and he choked in shock. Tails started laughing and Knuckles smirked. Shadow was still silent as a rock.

"Nine?!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed. "There're _nine_ kids living in your house?!"

"Yup. Layla works full time, Micah's working on getting a couple scholarships for college, Dylan's a senior in high school and works part-time, I'm going to school here, Dustin's in fifth, Rachel's in third, and the triplets are first graders." Silver said, chuckling a little at Sonic's reaction.

"Wow…" Tails said, breaking the silence that had fallen after Silver finished.

"I know. It's a lot to take in, but that's my life for ya." Silver shrugged. "We should be heading back to school now, the lunch hour's almost done."

"Yeah." Sonic said, jumping out of his shock. He looked at Knuckles with a mischievous grin and then zipped around the table in a circle, startling Knuckles. Knuckles' chair tipped back a little too far and the echidna flailed as he fell backwards. His friends started laughing, but Shadow stayed silent. They stood from the table and started walking back to the school.

Shadow stayed silent, his thoughts whirling around in his head. He wasn't paying attention and fell behind a little as the others started chatting about their own various families and lives. Something about Silver's story struck something very deep inside Shadow; something he had burned to ashes and buried away in the far reaches of his mind a very long time ago. As that something unburied itself and forced its way to the front of Shadow's mind, Shadow quickened his pace to catch up with his friends.

"Silver, don't they take comatose patients off of life support after three years if the patient's family agrees?" Shadow asked, trying to keep his mask of unconcern. He could feel the others' stares of curiosity.

"Yup." Silver said with another nod. "And my mom agreed to it. Why are you bringing this back up?"

Shadow felt anxiousness take its place in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know why it was making his stomach churn. He fought to control his breathing and not give away the thoughts racing through his head. Everyone was watching him in concern now.

"You okay, Shads?" Sonic asked. "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine." Shadow answered grumpily.

"I'm not buying it, Shads. Tell us what's wrong?" Sonic insisted. He only got ignored this time. Shadow looked up at Silver and bravely met the nearly white hedgehog's questioning eyes. Shadow could tell that Silver was just as curious and puzzled as the others were. Shadow tried to steady himself and blot out the anxiousness that was slowly turning to nausea but it wasn't working.

"Are you sure?" Tails asked. Shadow ignored the question as well and kept his eyes on Silver.

"Do you ever wonder about… about what would happen if he never woke up?" Shadow asked, feeling all eyes on him as his eyes returned to the ground once more. He swallowed hard to keep himself from throwing up. He knew this feeling, but he had very rarely felt it since he and his brother had finally been adopted. It was this strange feeling that had pushed him to make drastic choices in the far past. Choices he didn't want to remember any more.

"Yeah… all the time in fact." Silver answered, not understanding what Shadow was asking all these questions for. Shadow refused to meet his friends' eyes. "For one, no one in my family would be the same. For another I don't think my mom would ever smile again if something like that happened, but you see that's exactly why he _has_ to wake up. If he doesn't… if he doesn't he would break the promise he made to us on the day Layla was born."

"What did he promise?" Tails asked. The feeling that put anxiousness in the pit of Shadow's stomach had finally turned completely to nausea and he wrapped his arms around his stomach, trying to fight back against the feeling. His heart was pounding in his ribcage.

"He promised my mom he would never abandon us." Silver answered.

Shadow felt something inside him snap as memories and thoughts that he had tried to forget a long time ago went rushing through him like a tidal wave after a dam broke. He finally stopped walking, fists trembling as he closed his eyes and took steadying breaths. His friends stopped and watched him, concern and curiosity in their expressions and eyes.

"Shadow, you look like death itself. Are you sure you're okay?" Sonic asked. Sonic's analogy sent shudders down Shadow's back. Shadow rubbed his right temple with two fingers. He felt his stomach groan in protest against his mind, but he couldn't control his imagination any longer. His head hurt and his stomach really didn't like him anymore. Three years. It'd been nearly three years since he was adopted. He'd spent another three years in foster care and orphanages That meant it had been six whole years, nearly half his life, since he'd last felt this uneasy and nervous. He went over to a nearby bench and sat down hard. His friends followed him in confusion.

"I… I must have eaten too much ice cream." Shadow said, closing his eyes tightly. He was lying through his teeth, but he hated showing weakness. He'd always had to be the strong one for the past six years. Maria and his mother and his bother all leaned on him for support when they needed it and boy had they needed it. He'd been their support throughout Maria's illness for three years and before that he'd risked everything to take care of Kyle while they were in the orphanage. He'd _had_ to be strong. There hadn't been a choice. "I hate feeling like this…"

"Think you can get back to the dorms?" Sonic asked, looking concerned.

"I-I'll try, but I need a moment first…" Shadow's speech stuttered as he fought to get control of his stomach again. He swallowed hard, trying to keep the words bouncing around in his head from coming out of his mouth, but they came out anyways. "It scares me…"

"Scares you? What do you mean?" Silver asked, sitting down next to his shaken friend. Shadow shuddered at the nausea that was turning his stomach upside down and shaking it like a soda can.

"Are you afraid of getting sick?" Sonic asked jokingly. Knuckles didn't know what to do so he was content with standing in the background for a little while. Silver put a hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"Death." Shadow muttered bitterly, glaring at the ground as memories and fears danced in his head around his soda-can-stomach.

"I don't get it. What does that have to do with getting sick?" Sonic asked. Shadow tried to close his ears to topic of getting sick, but it didn't work. "Besides the fact that I guess you could die if you got sick enough. Is that what you're scared of? Dying of disease?"

"You're afraid of dying?" Tails asked, putting a few of the pieces together. Shadow shook his head and finally looked up at his friends, accepting that for the first time in six years he was actually afraid of something.

"No, not dying, death. I'm afraid of death. I have an irrational fear of everyone I care about dying on me. I've been way too close to it in the past; witnessed way too many near-death experiences." Shadow answered, closing his eyes as he tried to fight back against the nausea and fear.

"When would you see that stuff?" Sonic asked. "I thought you lived a happy life with your family, at least that's how you made it look."

"Sonic, his grandfather's a doctor. He's probably seen Professor Robotnik care for a lot of mobians with lots of different problems. I imagine some of them didn't always make it." Tails said, answering for Shadow when the question obviously shook him even more.

"Oh yeah, I guess you're right." Sonic said. He looked at Shadow and tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it was hard when the hedgehog looked this shaken. "Hey, Shadow, it's okay right? Nobody's dying right now so relax."

"Wrong." Shadow said, reopening his eyes. With a short burst of strength he managed to push the nausea back until he could control himself once more. "Someone is dying and I hope she stays that way."

"You hope? Why would you want someone to be dying? Who's dying, Shadow?" Tails asked as Shadow pushed himself off the bench, ignoring Tails' questions. He backed away from his friends and started walking away. When his friends and their questioning eyes followed him he started running. Sonic took off after him. "Guys wait!"

_**XXXXXXX**_

"Shadow?" Sonic asked as he opened the door to his dorm. He saw Shadow sitting at one of the desks, staring at his cellphone as if it held the answer to everything. There was a contact up on the phone and Shadow's thumb was on the send button, but he didn't press it. Sonic got the feeling he'd been staring at that number for a while now. Sonic walked over to his friend and placed his hand over Shadow's. Shadow looked up at him, looking like he was surprised to see the blue hedgehog. Sonic pressed his thumb to Shadow's forcing the dark hedgehog to press the button. Then he moved Shadow's hand with the phone to Shadow's ear. They both waited, their eyes not tearing away from each other's.

"_Hello?" _the call was picked up and answered by a young female voice.

"Maria, it's me." Shadow said as he swallowed again.

"_Shadow? Shouldn't you be in class? Are you sick or something?" _Maria asked from the other end of the call. Sonic took a few steps back and let the cousins talk as he packed his backpack for his afternoon classes.

"I…" Shadow visibly relaxed and the fear finally left his eyes completely.

"_Shadow? Is something wrong?"_ Maria asked again. _"Hey, answer me you silly hedgie or I'll force Grandpa to buy me a plane ticket to Chicago so I can shake the answer out of you."_

"I'm fine, Maria." Shadow answered, a small smile breaking out onto his face. Sonic noticed the look and smiled as well. "I'm fine now."

He heard another sigh of relief and he swore he could _hear_ her smile on the other end.

"_Good. For a moment I thought you sounded scared there."_

"I was scared, but I'm fine." Shadow said.

"_Why were you scared? Does it have anything to do with your mom?"_

"No, nothing to do with that. My friend told me how his dad has been in a coma for two years and I just… got a little worried, I guess."

"_Oh Shady. You really are such a silly hedgehog. I'm not going to suddenly just leave you overnight, okay? But uhh… I just wanted to ask… WHAT FRIEND?!"_ Shadow whipped the phone away from his ear at Maria's exclamation. Sonic snickered in the background. "_You made a friend?! Already?! How in the world did that happen?!"_ Maria asked excitedly as Shadow put the phone back to his ear.

"We literally bumped into each other yesterday morning." Shadow explained. "Then I guess I could say I made another three friends when I met my roommate and his adopted brother and then Silver's roommate."

There was a pause on Maria's end of the phone.

"_FOUR?!" _Shadow had to whip the phone away _again_ as Maria screamed once more. Sonic's snickers turned into chuckles.

"Yes, yes three. Calm down. Sheesh, it's not like I randomly got married or something." Shadow said, he pulled the phone down and glared over his shoulder at Sonic, or at least he tried to glare. "Stop laughing, Faker! It's not funny!"

"Then why are you smiling?" Sonic laughed. "Come on, Shads, you gotta let yourself live a little! Learn to laugh a little more, won't you?"

"Shut up, moron, I'm on the phone." Shadow huffed, putting the phone back to his ear haughtily as Sonic laughed harder. "Maria, my dear cousin, I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't scream in my ear anymore."

"_Sorry, sorry, it's just that the impossible just happened."_ Maria laughed. Shadow rolled his eyes. Sonic decided to be nice and took a look at Shadow's schedule so he could pack the black hedgehog's backpack as well. _"Well what are you waiting for?! Put me on speaker I want to meet them!"_

"Now?" Shadow asked. "Maria we have to be getting back to class soon or we'll be late. Our lunch hour's almost over and besides, only Sonic is here right now. I'm willing to bet the others are already headed for their next classes."

"_Awww, but I want to meet them!"_ Maria protested. Sonic stood near Shadow with both packed backpacks in hand. He swung his own over his shoulder and held the other out for Shadow to take.

"And you can. We can set up a Skype call or something later, okay?" Shadow offered as he stood and took his backpack from Sonic. "We're already running a little late."

"_Okay! That's better because then I'll get to meet all of them face to face! When will you be on Skype?"_

"I'll be on around five." Shadow said. He pushed Sonic towards the door. "I promise."

"_Thanks Shadow. I miss you."_

"Miss you too." Shadow smiled. Sonic opened the door and the two teens left the dorm behind. "Bye Maria."

"_Bye." _Maria hung up and Shadow closed his flip phone with a sigh.

"You okay?" Sonic asked as they stopped in front of the elevator. Shadow pressed the down button and the doors opened right away.

"Yeah I'm fine." Shadow replied casually. "Now let's get going. If you make me late for class you're sleeping out in the hallway tonight."

"At least you're back to normal!" Sonic said as they boarded the elevator. "Your cousin can really scream, Shads."

"Don't I know it." Shadow rolled his eyes and pushed the button for the lobby of the dormitory. The elevator doors closed.

_**XXXXXXX**_

_Again, I'm really sorry this chapter took so long to finish. I got lazy as summer started. BUT! My goal is to get to Christmas for these guys by the end of the summer. The story will really start to get moving then as the real conflict for this first year seriously starts to get tense. Don't ask why cause I'm not giving away any spoilers!_


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